ICC Women's World Cup: Twitter Reacts As England Beat India In A Thriller To Lift World Cup 1

It was so close yet so far for Mithali Raj & Co. as they felt agonizingly close from winning the World Cup, losing the title-decider at Lord’s by just 9 runs against England.

Chasing 228, India were off to a disastrous start with Smriti Mandhana failing once again. The left-handed batsman, who had failed to do well since the first two games of the tournament, once again failed to get going as she fell for a four-ball duck.

Punam Raut and Mithali Raj then took the inning forward but could add only 38 runs before the skipper was run out for 17.

With their most dependable batswoman already back in the pavilion, the onus was on Punam Raut and last-match centurion Harmanpreet Kaur to lay the platform for the chase and the duo did extremely well, adding 95 runs for the third wicket. Both the players reached their half-centuries during the course of the partnership but just when it looked the batswomen had got a measure of things, Harmanpreet perished when her slog sweep went straight into the hands of Tammy Beaumont at deep backward square leg.

England then had the chance to take an upper hand but Sarah Taylor missed an easy chance to stump Punam out when she was batting on 64 before Heather Knight dropped Veda Krishnamurthy on 14.

The duo made the hosts pay a hefty price for those costly mistakes as they added 53 runs for the fourth wicket. And just when the match started tilting towards the Indian camp, England dismissed Punam Raut (86) and Sushma Verma (0) to claw their way back into the match.  Krishnamurthy also perished soon, leaving the team reeling at  200 for 6. Jhulan Goswami also departed without bothering the scorer as England were all over the Women in Blue.

India kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and were eventually bowled out for 219 in the 49th over. Anya Shrubsole was the star of the show, taking 6 for 46 to derail India’s innings.

Earlier, losing wickets at regular intervals did not give the England innings an impetus to post a big total. Openers Laurent Winfield and Tammy Beaumont had given the hosts a good start by adding 47 runs but three wickets inside 16 runs put a break on their good start. An 83-run stand between Sarah Taylor and Natalie Sciver then steadied the ship before three quick wickets from Jhulan Goswami put India on top. Katherine Brunt and Jenny Gunn then played handy knocks to propel England to 228 in the allotted 50 overs.

Here is how Twitter reacted to the match: