So near, yet so far, is following the Indian women’s team to the next level as Harmanpreet Kaur and Co fell short by four runs against England in a crunch Women’s World Cup clash in Indore, a game they should have won. At 234/3, needing 55 runs off 53 deliveries, with two set batters in, India should have chased 289 down at a canter, but it ended up another botched-up chase from the Women in Blue, much like the 2017 World Cup final and the 2022 Commonwealth Games final.
India now hold the unwanted record of as many as 10 failed chases in the Women’s World Cup while chasing 200-plus targets. The 2017 World Cup finalists are yet to successfully chase down a score of 200-plus in the World Cup and it was Sunday when they came the closest but choked in the end as Sneh Rana and Amanjot Kaur couldn’t score 14 runs in the final over, bowled by Linsey Smith.
Target | Opposition | Result | Venue/Year |
228 | Australia | Lost by 153 runs | Auckland, 1982 |
224 | Australia | Lost by 51 runs | Lincoln, 2000 |
225 | New Zealand | Lost by 74 runs | Lincoln, 2000 |
216 | Australia | Lost by 98 runs | Centurion, 2005 |
273 | England | Lost by 32 runs | Brabourne, 2013 |
283 | Sri Lanka | Lost by 138 runs | Brabourne, 2013 |
274 | South Africa | Lost by 115 runs | Leicester, 2017 |
229 | England | Lost by 9 runs | Lord’s, 2017 |
261 | New Zealand | Lost by 62 runs | Hamilton, 2022 |
289 | England | Lost by 4 runs | Indore, 2025 |
Amanjot Kaur tried her bit, Deepti Sharma scored a fifty, but wanting to take the game deep cost India dearly as the hosts missed hitting a boundary or two in critical moments and 14 in the final over, then despite having two recognised batters in the middle was too much in the end.
This was India’s third consecutive defeat in the ongoing Women’s World Cup and the Women in Blue are now staring at must-win games against New Zealand and Bangladesh in Navi Mumbai to get through to the semi-finals. On the other hand, England remained unbeaten and confirmed their semis spot as well, after Australia and South Africa.
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