Reigning in style!

The Indian women’s contingent must be one happy unit after their recent Asia Cup triumph. They beat Sri Lanka in the finals by a mammoth margin of 177 runs at Kurunagela. This was their fourth consecutive Asia Cup win and it further exemplified the domination they hold in the subcontinent. Priya Ganoo gets us more..

Skipper Mithali Raj was overjoyed at her team’s performance and said that this win at the start of the season would enhance the team’s preparation for the all-important World Cup next year. She added, “It has done a lot of good for the confidence levels of the team as a whole.”

Bangladesh made their Asia Cup debut and even pulled off a surprise win over the Pakistani women. But their Indian counterparts faced no such problems and cruised to the finals without losing a match. Mithali admitted that the Bangladesh win did give them some jitters. “But this time I think all our matches were one sided. We are happy that the ratio and margin of the victory was high.”

The skipper led by example and was the leading run-scorer of the tournament averaging 75.33 from five games at a superb strike rate of 91.49. She also reached the 3,000 run-mark in ODIs and is the first Indian woman to do so and only the fifth in the world. When asked how she felt reaching the milestone she said, “I personally never knew about it and it was actually told by the management that I need a few runs to reach that milestone and that is how I planned my innings.”

Asha Rawat and Rumeli Dhar were the other two willow-wielders who wrecked havoc for the oppositions. Rumeli Dhar walked away with the Player of the Tournament award for her brilliant all-round performances. Mithali was all praise for Dhar and said, “I think she is one of the best allrounders in the world. She contributes with the bat as well as the ball. She will be very useful in the future as well.”

In the bowling department, quickie Jhulan Goswami impressed as always. She became the second Indian woman after Neetu David and the third woman in history to reach the 100 wickets milestone. Jhulan was obviously overjoyed and confessed it was a very special moment for her. “Well, it is a great honour for me to take 100 wickets. Day by day, I am working harder to improve my game, I have to keep moving ahead, this is just the first milestone that I have achieved, and I have to keep going ahead.”

Off spinner Seema Pujare, left-arm spinner Gouher Sultana and batswoman Priyanka Roy are amongst the new players who did well in the tournament. While Seema led the wicket-taking list with 14 from five matches, Sultana picked up six, and Roy scored 116 runs in six games. But keeping in mind the hard and fast tracks of Australia, India also gave chances to medium-pacers Snehal Pradhan and Devika Palshikar.

The next big series is in August, where Mithali’s girls will take on the English team at home. The team is high on confidence and the skipper is aware that hard work will be the key. “But every tour has its own challenges. Accordingly, if we prepare well I am very optimistic about the team doing well.”

Jhulan was also looking forward to play in England due to the bowling conditions that help the seamers. “In England the ball seams around a bit and the weather also helps medium pacers, it is brilliant to bowl in those conditions.” Since she was also the vice-captain for the tour, she concurred that she was enjoying the role. Jhulan added, “It is quite challenging to teach them good things and not bad ones. It is a good thing to play with youngsters so they can learn from us and we can learn from them”

Well for the moment we hope the good times keep rolling. Go girls!