By Admin 
It is unusual for a player to take the blame for a team’s defeat, as Smriti Mandhana did after India’s loss to England in the Women’s World Cup. A defeat by a small margin, four runs in this case, always sets off speculation on where those runs might have come from in the course of an innings. Ignored singles? Missed boundary? Luck?
Mandhana made 88 in 94 balls. When she was fourth out in the 42nd over, India were still sitting pretty. They needed 55 in 53 balls, and with wickets in hand that was a comfortable target.
Then things went haywire. The team’s confidence seemed to ooze out or turn into overconfidence. “We could have done with better shot selection,” admitted Mandhana, “It started from me, so I will take it on myself…” About being caught at long off, she said, significantly, “The emotions took over for that one…”
That is understandable. Emotions are part of sport. There are two ways to handle these — either by controlling them and making them work for you, or by giving in to them and preparing for the inevitable disappointment.
Stay put
There is a simple rule in white ball chases, which the great players are conscious of: when you are settled in, bat on till the end. Don’t leave it to the next person. The opposition needs only to get a foot in the door before kicking it open. Especially teams like Australia, multi-champions who have been in this situation before and know that one wicket could lead to another and then yet another. For that is the rule for the bowling team: one wicket can make all the difference and alter the flow of the match.
India were so near and yet so far in the ODI World Cup in 2017 and the T20 version in 2020. If they fail here now, it will mean that some of the senior players might not get another chance.
That both the men’s and women’s teams lost on Sunday, but can redeem themselves on Thursday is one of those quirks of scheduling. But in a larger sense, the Indian men in Australia and the women against New Zealand in their next match can get closer to rendering the defeat purely academic. Early defeats can actually be a spur, as the men showed when they won the 2011 World Cup at home.
The women can make it to the semifinals if they beat New Zealand. If they don’t, the ifs and buts must work in their favour. This means select teams must lose their matches. Leaving it to the kindness of rivals is never a safe way in sports, but when teams perform just below the optimum level, that is the only way.
Missing a trick
Did the women miss a trick by benching Jemimah Rodrigues, like the men did by not playing Kuldeep Yadav? There is no guarantee that different selections would have led to different results. In the case of the women, bringing in Renuka Singh to strengthen the bowling made cricketing sense, and acknowledged that although white ball cricket is seen as a batter’s game, taking wickets is the best way to check runs.
Kuldeep Yadav, India’s highest-ranked ODI bowler remains, in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, their most likely wicket taker. With two finger spinners and a medium pacer among three all rounders in the Perth ODI, India’s balance was slightly askew.
In sport you can make the wrong choices in team selection and still come out on top; the reverse is equally true. But there was — and continues to be — sound cricketing reasons to play Kuldeep in Australia. If your first seven or eight batters don’t get the runs it is hardly fair to expect the remaining to do so. Kuldeep is unlikely to score a fifty; he might even be a tad expensive. But he will get wickets, and that’s what matters.
Admittedly columnists have the advantage of hindsight — we make our calls after the match while the coach has to do so before the toss. But logic, rather than a defensive mindset should decide the line-up.
Redemption might be round the corner for both India teams, though. In both cases, however, they need greater self-belief.