CWG 2022: A finisher needed for Indian women's cricket team

MS Dhoni. On Sunday, India had bowled, fielded and batted extremely well to put themselves in the driver's seat against the mighty Aussies. However, poised for a win when Harmanpreet Kaur (65) and Jemimah Rodrigues were going great guns in their 96-run partnership that took them to 118 for two in the 15th over chasing 162, India, needing just 44 off 33 balls, self-destructed in spectacular fashion, losing eight wickets for 34 runs in 30 balls to crash to 152 all out.

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This is the Indian women's cricket team's third defeat in a big final in the last five years, and will hurt them as badly as the loss in the final of the 2017 ODI World Cup to England at Lord's.

After making them fight for every ball for much of the final, India handed over the gold medal to the Southern Stars on a platter. Yet again. It was a case of so near and so far for the Indian women's team. "Congratulations to the Indian women's team for winning silver . . But they will go home disappointed as it was their game tonite. . @BCCIWomen," tweeted former India skipper and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly.

Another ex-India captain, Mohammed Azharuddin, was scathing in his criticism of Indian women's team's implosion with the bat in the final. "Rubbish batting by the Indian team. No common sense. Gave away a winning game on a platter," he tweeted.

Batting brilliantly in the final, Harmanpreet would blame herself for not finishing the job, but it was the failure of the allrounders, Pooja Vastrakar (1) Deepti Sharma (13), Sneh Rana (8), Radha Yadav (1), and the specialist 'keeper-batter Yastika Bhatia (2) to take India home that rankled. It wasn't the first time that this has