India loses to England by 9 runs in the final

It was an unbelievable game and we looked like we were out at one stage. There was a time where the match was in the balance, but we panicked.

“I’m getting excited already thinking about the Ashes Down Under”, Knight said next to the World Cup trophy.

Openers Punam Raut (86) and Harmanpreet Kaur’s (51) steady half centuries had set a platform for a high score. It was a fitting final for such a great World Cup’.

As for the ICC Women’s Team rankings, there was no change in positions with Australia retaining top spot at 128 points. This is England’s fourth title while India failed to win their first in two attempts. However, the Indians seemed to lose their faith towards the end, losing seven wickets for just 28 runs to be all out for 219 runs in 48.4 overs.

The Indian eves rode on half-centuries from opener Punam Raut and Harmanpreet Kaur to nearly overhauling the target. They have shown remarkable tenacity & skill through the World Cup.

What better time to produce the only six-wicket haul of the tournament than the all important final.

Olympic 2016 silver medal-winning Sindhu wrote: “Hard luck girls …you have done really well n made our country proud”. But once they departed, it was far from a smooth ride, as England’s consistent strikes turned it into a cliff-hanger match. Veteran India bowler Jhulan Goswami revealed the team could not sleep that night as they could not stop thinking about what could have been.

Cricket iconSachin Tendulkarconsoled the team on their disappointment, the second time they have missed the cup after going down to Australia in 2005.

They may have lost the cup but they have won a billion hearts. But I think all the youngsters tried their best. I have been playing cricket for 18 years and it was my first experience to see so many people turning up for the match of women’s cricket and we didn’t disappoint any of them.

“Jhulan has had an excellent career, very long and inspirational for young cricketers”.

Edulji also revealed that the BCCI was impressed by the team’s performance in the recently concluded tournament where they finished as runner ups.