Perception may not be capable to transfer bodily mountains, however it may undoubtedly win you a World Cup. Ask India captain Harmanpreet Kaur.
An ODI World Cup marketing campaign that began with a lot promise discovered itself precariously on the sting of a cliff after three losses within the league stage to the match’s eventual semifinalists. India saved calm to make the knockouts and by no means seemed again.
“We felt we might win from the primary ball itself,” Harmanpreet informed reporters after the sport.
“Loads of issues modified for us — particularly our self-belief. Now we have performed good cricket for a very long time. We knew what we might do as a workforce. Toss doesn’t matter as a result of we don’t usually win these anyway!” she quipped to a lot laughter from the press.
“We knew we’d should bat first. We knew it will be powerful circumstances, however credit score to Smriti (Mandhana) and Shafali (Verma). They dealt with the primary 10 overs properly.”
“Our goal was easy – we knew that if we considered a giant goal, we might come underneath strain. The principle factor was to maintain batting and hold enjoying our sport. We tried to attain 300 runs on the board; we have been one run brief. However after that, I feel we got here onto the sector as a robust unit. Each time we would have liked it, we acquired a breakthrough. It was an excellent match. It appears straightforward to say now, however there was quite a lot of rigidity in between after they have been batting. Laura (Wolvaardt) barely gave us an opportunity,” she added.
“The final month has been very fascinating. It’s very uncommon for one to remain constructive regardless of issues not going your method. Not a single participant stated, “What is going to we do now?” All people simply thought, “It’s okay.” After shedding the England match, we have been actually heartbroken. We have been about to win that match, however we collapsed. We had seen this prior to now. Amol (Muzumdar) sir stated, “You’ll be able to’t make the identical errors repeatedly. It’s a must to cross that line.” That evening modified rather a lot for us. It had an influence on everybody.”
South Africa didn’t make that any simpler. Laura Wolvaardt’s century helped the Proteas take the chase deep. Harmanpreet may very well be noticed speaking to herself consistently to maintain spirits excessive on the sector.
“I used to be simply telling them — hold religion. We’ve labored actually exhausting for this. Alternatives will come, and we now have to seize them. ODI cricket is lengthy — there are various phases you need to tick off repeatedly.
“We knew our spinners have all the time been our largest power. As quickly as Deepti (Sharma) and Shree Charani got here, we might begin getting wickets. Once we went in, we thought we simply wanted 10 good balls. We simply want 10 wickets. Don’t have a look at the scoreboard, as a result of for those who do, you’ll really feel strain. Simply assume — we now have to ship 10 good balls, take 10 wickets, and the job is completed. And that’s precisely what occurred. We targeted on wickets. We knew there can be partnerships — they’ve additionally come to play exhausting cricket — however we might solely search for wickets. And because the wickets got here, we saved speaking — three extra to go, two extra, yet another— and saved believing.”
Indian gamers have a good time after profitable the ICC Girls’s World Cup ifnal.
| Picture Credit score:
EMMANUAL YOGINI
Indian gamers have a good time after profitable the ICC Girls’s World Cup ifnal.
| Picture Credit score:
EMMANUAL YOGINI
It wasn’t straightforward for the aspect to remain targeted on the job at hand, with accidents hitting morale earlier than and in the course of the match.
“We didn’t need Pratika (Rawal) to face any such factor. When she acquired injured, everyone was crying. Even earlier than that, when Yastika (Bhatia) acquired injured throughout our coaching camp, everyone was crying as a result of this workforce may be very particular. They pray for one another. They keep collectively in ups and downs. First, Yastika leaving the workforce was heartbreaking for us. Then, once we have been simply beginning to do properly, Pratika acquired injured.
“However when Shafali got here, we didn’t need her to really feel that she got here in underneath an damage cloud. Even Pratika was so constructive. I feel everybody took all the pieces positively. They didn’t assume, “Why is that this occurring to us?” Earlier than the match began, we had an damage; in the midst of the match, we had a giant damage. But, everyone was so constructive. Everybody was pondering that our finish aim was this trophy. We labored exhausting and that is the end result.”
Because the Girls in Blue inched nearer to victory earlier than a capability crowd on the D.Y. Patil Stadium right here, social media and broadcasting channels have been flooded with comparisons to the 1983 World Cup victory by Kapil Dev’s aspect and India’s inspirational run in a house World Cup in 2011. Harmanpreet, too, very like Kapil did then, took an essential catch to seal the sport in India’s favour. The parallels will not be misplaced on the 36-year-old.
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“I’ve performed many World Cups with Smriti. Each time we misplaced, we went dwelling heartbroken and stayed quiet for a number of days. Once we returned, we all the time stated — we now have to begin once more from ball one. It was heartbreaking as a result of we performed so many World Cups — reaching finals, semifinals, and typically not even that far. We have been all the time pondering, when will we break this?
“Now we have been speaking about this for a few years — we’ve been enjoying good cricket, however we needed to win one large match. With out that, we couldn’t speak about change. On the finish of the day, followers and the viewers wish to see their favorite workforce win. It’s not that we weren’t enjoying good cricket, however we have been ready badly for this second, and at this time we acquired an opportunity to reside it.”
The Indian skipper underlined what an enormous ethical increase enjoying at this venue was.
“As quickly as we acquired to know that our venue had been modified to DY Patil Stadium, all of us acquired so joyful as a result of we’ve all the time performed good cricket there. The largest factor is the gang — it’s all the time so supportive. So, when the venue modified from Bengaluru, all of us began messaging within the group. We have been manifesting. We stated, “The ultimate goes to be there — we gained’t depart it now.” As quickly as we reached Mumbai, we stated, ‘We’ve come dwelling now.’”
One of the vital memorable pictures of the evening was the aspect calling former cricketers Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Reema Malhotra, Anjum Chopra, and others to participate within the celebrations, as an acknowledgement of the paths they paved for the generations that adopted. An embrace with Jhulan became a giant hug with everybody in tears.
“Jhulan Di was my largest help. After I joined the workforce, she was main it. She all the time supported me in my early days once I was very uncooked and didn’t know a lot about cricket. I used to play with boys, and the varsity principal picked me up, and inside a yr, I began representing the nation. Within the preliminary days, Anjum supported me rather a lot. I all the time keep in mind how she used to take me alongside along with her workforce. I learnt rather a lot from her and handed it on to my workforce. Each of them have been a terrific help for me. I’m very grateful that I acquired to share a particular second with them. It was a really emotional second. I feel all of us have been ready for this. Lastly, we have been in a position to contact this trophy.”
Revealed on Nov 03, 2025