: CLOSE-IN: India run out of steam in Womens T20 World Cup (IANS column) #IndiaNEWS #Sports <br> <br>Unfortunately for India, they lost by a narrow margin of 5 runs against a champion side.

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CLOSE-IN: India run out of steam in Womens T20 World Cup (IANS column) #IndiaNEWS #Sports
<br> <br>Unfortunately for India, they lost by a narrow margin of 5 runs against a champion side. The match was at a critical stage when India had just put their nose ahead. A casual second run resulted in the run out of their captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, which was an unsavoury end to her stupendous innings.
Her departure was the catalyst that revived the Australian spirits. The Indian women, thereafter, fought well, however, the untiring and tenacious fielding efforts by the Australians, kept them just ahead.
The captains of both sides showed exemplary leadership. They were determined to lead from the front and Lannings for Australia and Kaur for India were superbly brilliant in their batting display.
The famous song, Give me one moment in time sung during the 1988 Summer Olympics by Whitney Houston comes to my mind. Harmanpreet, heartbroken and teary-eyed, will forever remember that moment in which she erred on the basics of crickets running between the wickets of not dragging ones bat. She took her eyes off the ball and with both her feet off the ground succumbed at that crucial moment.
In sports, and also very much in cricket, these are the blemishes that remain as life-long memories and ones that need to be buried quickly.
The Indian womens cricket side under Harmanpreets captaincy and coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar seems a side that looks confident and one that could combine to become the best.
India seems to be the only side that is close to toppling the two leading womens sides in World cricket Australia and England. The major differences between India and them are in the area of fielding and mental strength.
The famous cricket sayings of catches win matches and a run saved is a run earned, are so relevant to the present Indian side. Shafali Verma, Indias young dynamic batter, is a good example of one who needs a major effort in improving her fielding.
It is not her fitness but her confidence in her ability to catch. India erred by fielding her at the boundary. She needs the ball to come to her when she has the least amount of time to think. A catch on a far-off boundary requires one to be mentally relaxed and calm. The hyperactive ones go through mental trauma of plenty of thoughts and at times could be detrimental in their approach to either fielding or catching the ball.
I loved fielding close to the bat and especially in the in-field. The sharp or quick catches gave me no time to think and my muscle memory through plenty of practice took over. However, for catching in the deep, I had to train my mind to relax, especially when the ball was on a descending trajectory toward me.
During the 70s, we had the likes of Eknath Solkar, Karsan Ghavri, Madanlal or Kapil Dev fielding on the boundary.

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