Women’s Team India’s journey in the World Cup: Participated in 18 tournaments including T-20 and ODI; Played knockout 9 times, zero title

Oct 4, 2024 Divya Bharat

sports desk5 minutes ago

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The 9th T20 World Cup of Women’s Cricket has started from Thursday. Team India will start its campaign in the 10-team tournament from today. India will face New Zealand from 7:30 pm. India, the most successful team of Asian cricket, does not have a single title in the World Cup.

India has so far participated in 18 World Cups, which includes 10 ODI World Cups and 8 T-20 World Cups. The team also reached the knockout stage 9 times, but sometimes lack of experience and sometimes the pressure of big matches came in the way of India. The team had to face defeat 6 times in the semi-finals and 3 times in the final. India has not been able to win even a single knockout match in the T-20 World Cup.

In 10 points in the story, you will understand how India’s journey has been so far in women’s cricket.

1. Women’s Cricket Association formed after the first World Cup

The World Cup in women’s cricket started in 1973 itself, ICC organized an ODI tournament in England. At that time, due to the absence of a Women’s Cricket Board in India, the country did not send its team to the World Cup. After the World Cup, Women’s Cricket Association (WCAI) was formed in the country, after which the team played its first international match in the form of Test in 1976.

The Chief Minister of Bihar honored the India Women’s Cricket Team after registering its first Test win in Patna against West Indies in 1976.

In 1978, India played its first ODI match against England directly in the World Cup. The tournament took place in India, but India Women’s performance was very poor. In the 4-team tournament, the team stood fourth after losing all three matches. In 1982, the team won 4 matches, but due to 8 losses this time it got fourth place in the 5-team tournament. The team did not participate in 1988 due to internal board disputes.

2. Mithali-Jhulan strengthened the team

In 1993, Team India performed slightly better and finished fourth among 8 teams. The 1997 World Cup took place in India only. Under the captaincy of Pramila Bhatt, Team India won the quarter-finals and made it to the semi-finals, but lost to Australia.

In 1999, Mithali Raj made her debut for India at the age of just 16, after 3 years fast bowler Jhulan Goswami also made her debut. Both of them took up the responsibility of completely changing Indian cricket in the next 20 years. India again reached the semi-finals in the 2000 World Cup, but this time lost to champions New Zealand.

In 2005, India Women again made a comeback and defeated New Zealand in the semi-finals and made it to the finals. The team had to face defeat from Australia in the final, but from here the foundation of change in Indian women’s cricket was laid.

3. Defeated Australia by 2 knockouts Harmanpreet era started

In the 2009 World Cup, after the group stage, there was also a Super-6 stage. Team India defeated Australia in Super-6 and finished at third position. Then the final was held between the top-2 teams. In 2013 and 2022 the team could not make it to the knockout stage.

The tournament held in England during 2017 was India’s best ODI World Cup. The team won 5 matches in the group stage and made it to the semi-finals. While facing Australia, Harmanpreet Kaur played an inning of 171 runs on 115 balls and led India to victory by 36 runs.

Team India was also in a strong position in the final against England. Chasing the target of 229 runs, India’s score at one time was 191/3 in 42 overs. Only 38 runs were required on 48 balls, but the pressure of the World Cup final snatched the victory from India. The team lost its remaining 7 wickets in scoring 28 runs and lost the golden opportunity of winning the World Cup by just 9 runs. The pain of this defeat was bigger than the defeat the men’s team suffered from Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final of the same year.

4. Start of T-20 World Cup, lost 2 semi-finals in 5 events.

T-20 World Cup also started in women’s cricket from 2009. India made it to the semi-finals of the first two events, but lost to New Zealand and Australia. In 2012, 2014 and 2016 the team yearned to play the knockout stage.

Coming close to the trophy in the 2017 ODI World Cup inspired the young generation in the country to play cricket. Due to which players like Jemimah Rodriguez and Shefali Verma entered the team. Harmanpreet and Smriti Mandhana had proved themselves in 2017 itself. Therefore, Harman was also made the captain in the 2018 T-20 World Cup.

Under the captaincy of Harman, India Women again reached the knockout of the T20 World Cup after 8 years, but lost the semi-finals to England. The team again went one stage further in 2020 and made it to the finals, but this time lost to Australia. This was India’s first final in the T-20 World Cup.

In the 2023 T-20 World Cup, India faced Australia in the semi-finals itself. In front of the target of 173 runs, the team at one time scored 133 runs after losing 4 wickets. Here only 40 runs were needed on 33 balls, Harmanpreet was set. She tried to take 2 runs on the next ball, but before reaching the crease her bat got stuck and she was run out. Due to poor finishing, India missed reaching the World Cup final by a margin of 5 runs.

5. Australia caused the most trouble

Team India participated in ODI and T-20 World Cup 18 times from 1978 to 2023. The team reached the knockout stage 9 times, out of which it lost 6 times in the semi-finals and 3 times in the finals. Australia lost the maximum of 5 matches, while New Zealand and England lost 2-2 times. The team has won only 3 knockout matches so far, in which it defeated South Africa, New Zealand and Australia 1-1.

Australia had also snatched away India’s dream of winning the gold medal in the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Women’s cricket was included for the first time in the Commonwealth Games. India defeated England by 4 runs in the semi-finals and made it to the final. But Australia once again created trouble and defeated India by 9 runs, eliminating them from becoming champions in the global tournament.

India Women’s team has been defeated by Australia in maximum 5 knockout matches.

6. Lost 5 knockout matches in 7 years

From 2017, India Women’s team joined the top-3 teams along with Australia and England. This happened for the first time in 40 years. India have since participated in 7 tournaments and made it to the knockout stages of 6. However, due to tournament pressure the team had to face 5 defeats, including 3 major finals. The team also won 2 matches, but both were semi-finals.

7. India won 7 out of the 9 most successful titles in the Asia Cup.

India Women has not been able to get success in the World Cup and global tournaments so far, but India has the best team at the Asian level. In the 4 ODI Asia Cup held so far, India has not lost a single match and the team became champion every time.

India also won 3 out of 5 titles in the T-20 Asia Cup, the team has lost only 21 out of 25 matches, which includes 2 finals against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The team had to face defeat against Sri Lanka in July this year.

8. If you want to win the World Cup, you will have to defeat Australia.

Australia has the maximum number of 13 titles in the ODI and T-20 World Cups. After them, England has won 5 titles, while West Indies and New Zealand have the remaining 2 titles. The teams of West Indies and New Zealand could become champions only by defeating England and Australia. England also becomes champion only by defeating Australia in the knockout stage. That means, if India Women has to win the title, they will have to defeat both Australia and England simultaneously.

9. India can get its first trophy with the young team and WPL experience

Like IPL, it took a long time for the Women’s Premier League (WPL) to start in India. It could start only last year in 2023. Both times the team led by the Indian captain was successful, but the biggest advantage of the tournament was for India in the form of young players. Players like Shreyanka Patil, Saika Ishaq, Sajivana Sajna and Asha Shobhana met this tournament. Out of which 3 have also made it to the World Cup squad.

The team includes experienced players like Mandhana, Harmanpreet, Jemima and Deepti along with young players like Shreyanka, Shefali, Richa Ghosh and Pooja Vastrakar. India defeated both England and Australia in the T20 series last year. Tournaments like WPL also taught Indian players to handle pressure, hence the team is also a big contender to become the champion.

The Women’s Premier League has given India a very important all-rounder in the form of Shreyanka Patil.

10. Challenge for India to become champion from here in Group of Death

India is now entering the T20 World Cup for the 9th time with a young team and painful memories of past defeats. Australia and New Zealand are the ones who have defeated India the most number of times by knockout in Group A. The same group also includes arch-rivals Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which defeated them in the Asia Cup final this year. India faces a big challenge to emerge from this group of death and become champion.

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