Team India’s hopes of winning their first major title in women’s cricket ended in heartbreak as they lost to Australia by 9 runs in the gold medal match. As a result of the defeat, Harmanpreet Kaur had to settle for a silver medal as Australia clinched the gold.
This was the Indian women’s cricket team’s third major final defeat in five years. In 2017, they lost to England by nine runs in the Women’s cricket World Cup final at Lord’s. Later, they reached the 2020 T20 Women’s World Cup final but faced a heavy defeat at the hands of Australia in front of a record crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
After failing to take advantage of a winnable situation, many cricket lovers have labelled them as ‘chokers’. Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has slammed those making such claims and asserted that the team has done tremendously well to reach the final and taken a huge leap.
“You guys are so hard. I usually think I am a bit harsh with my views and observations but you guys have taken a huge leap over me. Be nice please, because I think the Indian women’s team have done tremendously well,” said Manjrekar on Sports 18.
“If you look at women’s cricket, Australia sit right there at the top, and then there was England, New Zealand and then India in the food chain. But in this Commonwealth Games and you have seen it in these last few months that India have taken a leap,” he added.
Manjrekar further stated that the fact India beat England and gave Australia two very close games shows that they are very close to being the second-best in the world. The former India batter stated that the team should be proud of winning the silver.
“They have beaten England in this Commonwealth championship, they ran Australia close twice. So few little issues to be fixed and India could be the second-best team in the world.I think they should be really proud of their silver because they beat England and they ran Australia very close and beating Australia is tough. So when you lose to Australia it’s not choking, it’s about Australia just being at the moment invincible,” concluded Manjrekar.
