Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said they were positive despite losing three consecutive matches in the league stage of the World Cup. India suffered losses against Australia, South Africa, and England and all of these three teams were able to make it to the semifinal.
Harmanpreet Kaur’s team were able to win the must-win contest against New Zealand comprehensively after Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal scored fine centuries. Subsequently, India came up with their best performance against juggernauts Australia as Jemimah Rodrigues played the best knock of her career in the semifinal.
In the end, India were able to cross the final hurdle against South Africa, beating them by 52 runs to win their maiden World Cup title.
“The last month has been very interesting. It’s very rare that things don’t go according to your plan, and yet you stay so positive. We were really looking for this cup — that was something special in our group. Not a single player said, ‘What will we do now?,” Harmanpreet said after India’s victory in the final against South Africa.
“Everybody just thought, “It’s okay.” After losing the England match, we were really heartbroken. We were about to win that match, but we collapsed. We had seen this in the past. That day, (Amol Muzumdar) Sir also said, ‘You can’t make the same mistakes again and again. You have to cross that line’. After that day, a lot changed for us. Every time, we cannot go on repeating the same things. We had to come with a strong mind. That night changed a lot for us. It had an impact on everyone,” she added.
Kaur shared her delight after they were able to cross the final hurdle against the Proteas.
“We have been talking about this for many years – we’ve been playing good cricket, but we had to win one big tournament. (But) without that, we couldn’t talk about change,” Harmanpreet said.
“At the end of the day, fans and the audience want to see their favourite team win. It’s not that we weren’t playing good cricket, but we were waiting badly for this moment, and today we got a chance to live it. I don’t know how to express it, but I’m so happy and so proud of this team. I’m just trying to express what I’m feeling. I am numb. I am not able to understand. He (a journalist) asked two questions; I answered only one,” she added.
India was able to come up with a collective effort.
