Team India, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, is all set to play the country’s third ICC Women’s World Cup after eight years. The two-time runners-up have seen major improvements in certain aspects of their game over the years. The cricket world will finally get to see a new world champion of women’s ODI cricket when Team India takes on South Africa, who have reached the final for the first time, at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday. Team India will have some fond memories of playing at this ground as a brilliant innings from Jemimah Rodrigues and another stellar performance from skipper Harmanpreet Kaur helped India chase down the target of 339 runs against Australia, which is the best ever target in the knockout matches of the Men’s and Women’s ODI World Cups.
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– Mandhana-Prateika provided stability at the top
The Smriti Mandhana-Prateika Raval pair has been nothing less than a revolution at the top for the women’s team in this tournament. Mandhana has been the second-highest run-scorer in this tournament, scoring 389 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of over 102 and an average of 55.57, which included one century and two fifties. She has scored the most runs by a female batsman in ODIs in a calendar year, with 1,317 runs in 22 matches at an average of 62.71, a strike rate of over 111 and five centuries and a half-century.
Raval has also been the fourth-highest run-scorer with 308 runs in six innings at an average of 51.33 and a strike rate of 77.77, which has given Smriti the stability and composure to maintain her form. He has scored one century and half-century each. The Indian opening pair has scored the most runs (722), second only to South Africa (682), where captain Laura Wolvaardt has put in a one-sided performance. Their batting average is the second best in the tournament with 51.57, behind only Australia’s 58.81. This average is much better than the average of 35.13 scored by Smriti and Poonam Raut in the 2017 edition, when India had previously reached the final, and also better than the average of 35.78 scored in the 2022 edition.
This increase has also been seen against Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand, where he averages 57.40, compared to 36.05 in the 2017 edition and 27.8 in the 2022 edition. Additionally, India’s top two players in this tournament have a strike rate of 89.57, which is the third highest after South Africa (96.05) and Australia (116.57). The strike rate of the Indian openers in this edition is significantly higher than the 2017 edition, which is 75.58, and 80.80 compared to the 2022 edition. The Indian openers have left no stone unturned to showcase their fearless SENA nations potential in this tournament too, with their strike rate at 97.36, which is much better than 81.03 in the 2017 edition and 74.34 in the 2022 edition.
– Clear intention of the middle order gives lead to Team India
For years, the women’s team has been dependent on its top-order batsmen in ODI matches, often missing out in match-winning situations and suffering embarrassing defeats. This time, India’s middle order has often rescued the team from difficult situations. India’s four-seven batsmen have averaged 26.73 in this tournament, which is the third highest and not far behind Australia (39.50) and New Zealand (38.42). This is no better than 2022’s batting averages of 28.16 and 30.09, but the improvement is a result of the high-risk game adopted by India. Compared to strike rates of 76.93 in 2022 and 84.71 in 2017, India’s strike rate among middle-order batsmen has increased to 92.20, the second highest among all teams in this tournament behind Australia (102.44).
The Indian middle order now does not lay down its arms even when faced by the army. In this tournament, despite three big defeats to South Africa, Australia and England, he has scored a strike rate of over 98 and an average of 29.53 against them. It seems the ‘panic button’ no longer exists. This is significantly higher than the average of 28.66 and strike rate of 75.44 in the 2022 World Cup, while it is better than the 2017 batch, who scored at a strike rate of over 106 and an average of 33.33 against SENA.
This remarkable improvement in intent gave India the edge, which was most evident during the semi-finals. After the 167-run partnership between Jemimah Rodrigues and captain Harmanpreet was broken, quick-fire innings from Richa Ghosh (26 runs in 16 balls), Deepti Sharma (24 runs in 17 balls) and Amanjot Kaur (15* runs in 8 balls) made up for Harman’s huge loss with a total of 65 runs in 41 balls and Jamie led the way. The team got a chance to perform brilliantly. Be it Deepti and Amanjot’s brilliant saves that took India from 124/6 to 269/8 in the first match against Sri Lanka, or Richa’s 94-run innings that took India from 102/6 to 251 against South Africa, India’s middle order has produced many outstanding performances.
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– A powerful spin attack
Deepti Sharma (17 wickets at an average of 24.11 in eight matches and four wickets once) is the joint-highest wicket-taker in the tournament. Among the spinners of all the teams, Indian spinners have taken the most wickets (43 wickets at an average of 28.20, with an economy rate of 5.45). Young spinner Sri Charani has been a great find for India, taking 13 wickets at an average of 26.07 in eight matches, with his best figures being 3/41 and an economy rate of 4.91. Sneh Rana (7 wickets), Radha Yadav (4) and Pratika (2 wickets) have also contributed with their bowling.