2017 World Cup was supposed to be India’s dream year. With the whole country backing the team, the faith was reinstated. The fans were eager to watch the team going toe-to-toe with England. Harmanpreet Kaur destroying Australia has a lot to do when it came to the massive support. Her knock made the heads turn, helped the fans to glue to the seats.
The final was all set. India took on England. The latter had a tough 2016 with the retirement of Charlotte Edwards and the team looked all new and fresh. With the way India performed in the semi-finals, they began the game as the favourites. Even when India began to bat, they were cruising. The visitors had only 40 runs to win and they had seven wickets in the hand.
Nobody knew that it was going to be Anya Shrubsole’s day. Nobody believed that England were still in the game. Shrubsole had Smriti Mandhana early but India fought back really well, thanks to the partnership of Raut and Kaur. When Kaur was dismissed, Veda took up the job and made sure to keep the scoreboard ticking. They were still on the crease and the team needed 47 from 48 deliveries. It was supposed to be a cakewalk. It was supposed to be India’s day but lesser did everyone knew what Shrubsole was going to do. Of course, she was staying away from the spotlight and maybe, that worked well for her.
It was the 43rd over and Knight threw the ball to Shrubsole. She had two poor deliveries to start with, Veda smashed them both to boundaries. One went over the covers while the other went over the mid-off.
Shrubsole came back. She went back to the basics. She doesn’t think a lot but has these two weapons. One is a slower delivery which she usually bowls to the batters who are already settled and the other one is to bowl outside off to the right-handers and to make the ball slide in, to hit the stumps.
She bowled a beautiful leg-cutter, Slower one, which defeated the edge of Veda. She followed it up with similar delivery and this time, a thick edge took the ball to short third-man.
Shrubsole runs in to bowl the next one. She bowls it outside off and the ball slid in. She turned and appealed. The crowd joined her as well. Raut had to walk back after 86. Dejected.
England began to drag the World Cup from the mouth of India. Even Mithali Raj couldn’t hide the pressure. She was nervous and was still with her pads on.
Sushma Verma walked in but all eyes were on Veda. Hartley was asked to bowl the next.
The team went on with strong leg-side field and that allowed Veda to play an inside-out lofted shot over the extra cover. Things looked normal once again but three balls later, Hartley removed Verma. Deepti Sharma was the next batter.
Shrubsole came back to bowl her eighth. Veda tried to sweep the first but the ball was too high to sweep. She then edged the next one but was safe. She clearly struggled and Shrubsole once again found the loophole. She came around the wicket and the Midas touch continued. Veda attempted a cross-batted slog sweep and ended up finding the mid-wicket. India began to crumble.
Deepti slowly took the single and gave the strike to the new batter Goswami. Shrubsole found a perfect delivery from nowhere. A full-length delivery that came back in just too much to break the defence of Goswami. Had Goswami was among the crowd and wasn’t batting, she would have enjoyed that.
Pandey and Sharma then played out two overs, one from Hartley and other from Shrubsole. However, Pandey got out to Gunn soon leaving India in deep trouble.
Shrubsole came back to bowl her final over. India needed 11 from 12 deliveries. With Sharma at the crease, India still had the upper hand. Well, that didn’t last long. Shrubsole watched that Sharma kept walking out of the crease and in the first delivery, she changed the pace. Sharma mistimed the ball which landed in the hands of Sciver. That’s her fifth.
A delivery later, Gunn dropped Yadav at the mid-off giving away single. Shrubsole didn’t take the drop seriously and was super cool about it. Perhaps she already knew the future.
What followed was a full-wide off stump delivery which came back in to defeat the defence of Gayakwad. That was it. England grabbed the title from nowhere.
It was Shrubsole’s day. It was fate. The woman who usually doesn’t get the proper spotlight because of the other stars in the team was the centre of attraction for the first time in years. Everything happened real fast and she even shed a couple of tears and it was all worth it.
She might go on to achieve a lot more but this win will stay with me forever. Maybe, because it hurts. Maybe, because it was the perfect example of the words- “It’s not over until it really is”. Shrubsole proved it that day.
Oh, and who can forget that moment in the semi-final where she consoled Dane Van Niekerk before going on to celebrate the semifinal triumph with her team-mates. Oh, that moment too. Shrubsole will be always remembered for that moment too no matter what she goes on to achieve in her life.
Image courtesy: Getty Images
This image perfectly explains what had happened in the final.
