Women's T20 WC: From support to scepticism, reactions to India's rout vary

Australia displayed an all-round performance to defeat India by 85 runs in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup final at the MCG

Australia on Sunday won the ICC Women's T20 World Cup after defeating India by 85 runs in the tournament’s final held at Melbourne’s MCG stadium.

Reacting to the defeat, India women’s ODI team skipper Mithali Raj said the massive defeat was “not the result we all expected.”

Despite the defeat, Raj, in another tweet, said the girls had a wonderful T20 World Cup campaign.
 

"Gutted by the result today. Nonetheless the girls have had a wonderful #T20WorldCup campaign. I congratulate the T20 captain @ImHarmanpreet and the girls. Well done. Request everyone to continue supporting women's cricket. Only great things are in store," she wrote.

After opting to bat first in the decider, Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy played knocks of 78 and 75 runs respectively to take Australia's score to 184/4 in the allotted twenty overs.

During India's chase, Megan Schutt and Jess Jonassen picked four and three wickets respectively to bundle out India on 99 runs.

Reacting to the defeat, former skipper Shantha Rangaswamy said she felt the time has come for Harmanpreet Kaur to take a call on her captaincy future as her role as a batter is more important than that as a leader.

Another women's cricket veteran Diana Edulji called for "introspection" following the team's crushing loss, while former coach Tushar Arothe slammed the decision to send Tania Bhatia at number three.

Both Shantha and Diana took solace in the performance of 16-year-old opener Shafali Verma and the consistent showing from the bowlers while the star batters disappointed.

"I am very disappointed that such high calibre batters like Smriti, Jemimah, Harman did not click at all. It was a consistent failure of Harman, Smriti, Jemimah and Veda," Shantha told PTI after India's heavy loss in their maiden final.

"Shafali was the only one who made significant contributions while the others just chipped in which is not good enough to win a world title."

Australia skipper Meg Lanning, meanwhile, said delivering a 'complete performance on the biggest stage is amazing'.

"(I feel) just pride. This tournament was always going to be massive, we had our ups and downs throughout, everything was thrown at us," Cricket.com.au quoted Lanning as saying.

"To be able to come through and put on the complete performance on the biggest stage is amazing and testament to the group to be able to deliver that," she added.

What the men said

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Sunday said Australia "outplayed" India in the final of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Melbourne.

"Australia played well actually. They outplayed them. In sport there's always win and loss. But the women's team have done a great job," Ganguly said.

Virender Sehwag and Ravichandran Ashwin on Sunday hailed Indian cricket team's performance despite facing a defeat at the hands of Australia in the final of ICC Women's T20 World Cup.

Ashwin took to twitter and wrote: "Great campaign for the @BCCIWomen, well done @wvraman and the entire team for making us all proud. Onwards and upwards Ok hand. Congrats to the @AusWomenCricket for a dominating performance on the big night. Clapping hands sign#WomenWorldCup2020."

"Our girls gave their everything, just had one bad day but it was so wonderful to see the way in which they played barring today. Wishing them better luck next time. Congratulations to Australia on winning the #T20WorldCup," Sehwag wrote on the microblogging website.

Former Indian cricket VVS Laxman congratulated Australia and praised Harmanpreet Kaur-led side's performance.

"Congratulations @AusWomenCricket on winning the #T20WorldCup To the @BCCIWomen team,we all are very proud of your achievement. Really enjoyed the way you all played throughout the tournament. Good luck for your future matches," Laxman tweeted.