Rains dash England’s hopes, help sail India to their first T20 Women’s World Cup Final
As the semi-final between India and England scheduled for March 5th was abandoned, the Indian team qualified for their first-ever T20 Women’s World Cup Final. Having topped their group with four straight wins, India had reached the semis with maximum points in Group A. England on the other hand, was second, having lost a game to South Africa.
In light of there being no reserve day in case of rains (a reserve day has been kept on for the Cup final), India’s road to the final was cleared owing to their top-notch performance in the group stage. Though the Indian captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, was displeased on having to abandon the match. She did add that the team had accounted for such a scenario and tried to stay at the top of the game during group matches. She said,
“It is unfortunate not to get a game due to the weather. But that’s how the rules go. In future, it would be nice to have a reserve day. From day one, we knew that we have to win all the games because if in case we don’t get any play in the semifinals, it will be hard for us. Credit to the team, we wanted to win all the games and we did it.“
Team England’s captain, Heather Knight, was clearly disappointed on having her team’s fate being sealed by bad weather. She expressed this saying, “It is frustrating, [we] didn’t want the World Cup to end this way but not much you can do about this. Would have been good to have a reserve day perhaps. That loss to South Africa cost us. We expected to reach the semi-finals and that we did. We did feel like we had started to gain momentum in recent games and we were really ready for this semifinal. We were undone by the weather.”
Incidentally, England was the side that had stood in India’s way in each of the last two marquee events – in London, 2017 and Antigua, 2018. As the women in Blue gear up for their shot at the title, clouds of abandonment loom over the second semi-final between South Africa and Australia, with the present status being of the toss being delayed due to wet outfield.
