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Women's Cricket World Cup 2022: Heartbreak at Hagley — India exit after a campaign of missed chances

A win or a washout was India's best chance of qualifying to the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup 2022. But with no rain on the horizon on Sunday, a victory against South Africa at the Hagley Oval became a must.

This was always going to be a lopsided matchup. World No 2 South Africa are in the middle of an excellent run, having won 18 out of 24 ODIs since 2021 with two of them seeing no result. Before the Sunday encounter, they were the only team besides Australia to have already booked a spot in the semi-finals. Even in the experience department, South Africa had a massive edge. 10 out of their 11 from the playing XI on Sunday have over 50 ODIs to their respective names.

On the other hand, that number stood at five for India who had been a bit iffy coming into the match. With three wins from six matches, their inconsistency had plagued their campaign. Yet as they often do at the grandest of the stages, as they did at the 2017 ODI World Cup and 2020 T20 World Cup, they stood up to the challenge, with their backs against the wall.

Indian team walk off the field after their loss during the Women's Cricket World Cup match against South Africa. AFP

And so, they got off to a flier at Christchurch with young opener Shafali Verma being the aggressor. She smashed 53 off 46 and India scored 91 inside the first 15 overs before tragedy struck. A complete breakdown of communication between Shafali and Smriti Mandhana led to a bitter and completely avoidable run-out. Shafali's dismissal was soon followed by that of Yastika Bhatia's.

Mandhana and Mithali Raj steadied the ship with 80 runs off 93 balls as they both scored their respective fifties before Harmanpreet Kaur scored 48 to help India finish on 274/7.

South Africa needed to complete their highest successful chase in women's ODIs for a win on the night, and while they stumbled a few times and had their heart in the mouth when half-centurion Mignon du Preez was caught at long-on on the penultimate ball of the match which was later declared a no-ball, their professionalism and experience saw them through in a last-ball thriller which spelled elimination for India.

Missed chances

India were in the ascendancy on multiple occasions in the match but their inability to land that killer blow and the error-prone game went against them.

After a blazing start, India looked destined for a 300-plus total. In the end, they were a good 30-run short of where they would have wanted to be. That provided a lifeline to South Africa which they seized on.

India were 93/1 after the 15 overs. In the next ten overs, they only added 33 runs to be at 126/2. while they picked up the scoring rate, a lot of momentum and time were lost. A similar lull was experienced towards the end as it took more than nine overs for India to go from 200 to 250. While Harmanpreet did all she could, the lack of support from the other end curtailed India's power-hitting in the death overs. The problem was compounded by South Africa's strategy to take pace off the ball in final overs.

While defending the total, the lack of a second experienced pacer in the Indian squad came to the fore. With Jhulan Goswami missing the match due to a strain, a lot of responsibility fell on inexperienced Meghna Singh's shoulders, who was carted for 37 runs from six overs. Pooja Vastrakar also went for 37 runs in six overs, and that had India relying mostly on spinners to do the job in the death overs.

To their credit, Deepti Sharma bowled excellently at the start and in death overs. Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Sneh Rana were equally good but it is just a wee bit more difficult to contain runs with spin, especially at the business end of a match. One wonders what could have been the case had India picked Shikha Pandey in the squad for the World Cup.

Besides this, India's sloppy fielding and unnecessary overthrows did them no favour in the crunch game. Du Preez who played the winning hand was dropped on 1 by Mandhana at long-on. In the 47th over, Richa Ghosh had an opportunity to get rid of Du Preez off Deepti but the wicket-keeper squandered the stumping chance.

In many ways, the defeat to South Africa was the microcosm of India's campaign at the showpiece event.

Despite making a strong start to the World Cup with a 107-run win over Pakistan, India lost three of their first five matches and it was the Bangladesh victory that keep their semi-final chances alive till the last game against South Africa. They defeated West Indies by 155 runs after scoring 317 in the match — the highest total of this World Cup so far, but only managed 134 in the immediate next game against England.

They put up strong totals against Australia and South Africa, taking both the matches to the final over, but failed to defend them. With Australia making a record for the highest successful World Cup chase and South Africa completing their highest successful chase of all time.

Very literally, so close yet so far.

Mithali and Jhulan era ends on a low

India's exit from the World Cup is also set to bring an end to the era of Mithali and Jhulan. There are no official confirmations but with India scheduled to play few ODIs in near future, we could soon see Mithali and Jhulan hanging their boots.

In 2017, they almost had their hands on the trophy but it ended in a heartbreaking nine-run loss to England in the final. In 2022, they were least expecting an encore but the campaign has ended in the league stage. One feels this is not how it should have ended. The biggest driving force of women's cricket in India,  Mithali and Jhulan certainly deserved more. But that's cricket, it's cruel at times.

India's campaign may have been a story of missed chances but it also showed us where they stand. Against Australia and South Africa, India exhibited that they have what it takes to challenge the best. In the defeats though, India showed they are from being the most professional unit. The close matches and India's ability to give the best teams a run for their money highlighted what the team is capable of doing but the inconsistency in seizing the big moments and getting past the finish line also showed how far they have to go.

Click here for our full coverage of the 2022 Women's World Cup

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