The India Women cricket team have played well in the T20 World Cup taking place in Australia. They had booked themselves a place in the semi-finals against England. The showdown was set to take place on March 5 in Sydney.
Australia has a strong Indian contingent and fans had made plans to come in and support the women’s team. The passion back home for women’s cricket has also increased in the last couple of years; the women’s team has found a number of superstars who have boosted the image of women playing cricket.
India Women Get Free Pass To The Finals
However, fans did not get to see India-W and England-W face-off as rain played spoilsport. Officials had to abandon the game.
One would have expected the ICC to have reserve days in place for knock-out games. For some strange reason, there was no such provision; as a result India-W entered the finals because they had topped Group A. The controversial rules frustrated cricket fans all over the world; and England certainly got the short end of the deal.
India will now take on Australia in the ICC T20 World Cup finals; the hosts defeated South Africa-W courtesy D/L. Rain once again played spoilsport and the Proteas were short changed.
Indian Captain Says Everyone Knew The Rules
While social media is abuzz, Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur said all the teams were aware of the rules; in essence, everyone had a level playing field.
Kaur said India planned ahead and took each and every game very seriously because they knew they had to win and top their group in order to be in a strong position if rain did play a factor in the semi-finals. That’s exactly what happened and India went through on the basis of wining every game.
England-W captain Heather Knight was very disappointed at the way things turned out for her team. She admitted that the England cricket team did not discuss the rain factor in-depth but they did focus on winning each and every match. Knight said it was a bitter pill for the team to swallow as they ended up losing without even playing. She called on the ICC to have a rethink over such rules as it not only hurt the players but also the game in general.
India-W One Match Away From T20 World Cup
Reports show that over 60,000 tickets have already been sold for the T20 World Cup final between India-W and Australia-W which will be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). India can once again expect a strong contingent of fans but must also be prepared for a tough and gritty Aussie team.
The Aussie-W team go in as the favourites with betting odds of 1.51 while India are the underdogs with betting odds of 2.51. When it comes to an ICC World Cup final, it all depends on which team is able to keep calm under pressure and not let the special occasion get the better of them!
