So Close Yet So Far: Team India At ICC Women's World Cup Finals 2017

A defeat by 9 runs is not a big deal, but the team that did well on that day won. Indian girls should have performed better, but in the end Australian team performed better and won.

Indian team captain Mitali Raj and her teammates had done spectacularly well and showed great performance in the tournament. In the semifinals with Australia, the Indian team defeated Australia by 36 runs, even though Australia has been the champion for 6 times. In spite of that, the Indian women team made it to the final by defeating Australia in an amazing game.

The point to note is that the Indian women's team has not won a World Cup final yet. Earlier in 2005, the Indian women team had reached the finals but lost to Australia, and this time too Indian women team lost to England in the finals.

The Indian women team needed 236 runs to win from England. In order to achieve the target of 236 runs, Poonam Raut and Smriti Mandhana opened the innings. Though the pair performed brilliantly in the last league match, they did not bat quite well in this final match. Mandhana failed to open her account and was bowled out by Shabsol.

 Now it was the turn of the Mithali Raj in the field, Captain Mithali Raj also got out after making 17 runs. Next was Harmanpreet Kaur. Although Harmanpreet Kaur batted brilliantly in the final, she did not do impress like she did in the semi-final match.

Opener Poonam Raut, scored 51 runs in 80 balls. That was the turning point of India. Poonam Raut also gave a fantastic performance on her side. Poonam managed to score 86 off 115 balls.

England finally defeated India by 9 runs and won their fourth title of World Cup title. England set a target of 236 runs in front of India. The Indian team could not get it. The Indian team scored 219 runs in 48.4 overs and came so close to victory but quickly lost the wickets.