To read ‘Champions – India’ still feels unreal, says Smriti Mandana
Smriti Mandhana said India’s ICC Women’s World Cup win still felt unreal as she recalled years of heartbreak and hard work. Amanjot Kaur, Richa Ghosh, and Prajakta Rawal also shared emotional reflections on India’s historic triumph in Navi Mumbai.
HYDERABAD: Flamboyant batter and vice-captain of the victorious Indian team, Smriti Mandhana, said she had never been emotional on a cricket field but just a very unreal moment when the team had won the World Cup in Navi Mumbai against South Africa after midnight on Sunday.
“I don’t know how to react to that being World Champions. Home World Cup. Just to read ‘Champions – India’, I am still not able to process it. Every World Cup we go in and there’s been so many heartbreaks for all of us,” Smriti said.
“But we always believe we’ve got a bigger responsibility with women’s cricket and genuinely to see the support we’ve got in the last one and a half months. I mean, I don’t know how to explain the last 40 days,” she said.
“But to end it with a World Cup win today, I will take the 45 days of not sleeping every night. [After exit from last T20 World Cup before the semi-final] The last T20 World Cup was a difficult one for all of us, but we had a clear focus on trying to work on our fitness, trying to be better at each aspect,” said Smriti, the lead scorer for India in the World Cup .
“The super-strength of this team – no one will talk about it – is how everyone just stuck in, played for each other. In a World Cup you need everyone’s support, good days and bad days. We enjoyed each others’ success. I can’t tell you how the team environment is… that’s just magic,” she said.
For her part, Amanjot Kaur, who took that all-important juggling catch to send back Wolvaardt off Deepthi Sharma, guessed that she fumbled the first time ever in her life and was glad that she got a second chance to grab it. “That’s all, I don’t have words to express. This means a lot. You can see the crowd cheering. We have created history,” Amanjot said.
“This is just the start, Indian cricket will be at the next level. We are going to dominate all over the world in every format. Congrats to everyone. My family, my coaches, whoever has family here or those sitting at home. My grandmother is not well, she is watching at home. [The support] I think it’s their victory as well. Because they came in huge numbers to support us. This is for you Mumbai, this is for everyone, this is for Pratika who missed out due to injury. I know how it feels to miss out a match due to injury. Not everything is good but there’s good in everything. Very grateful,” said a visibly delighted Amanjot.
One of the star performers in India’s successful campaign, Richa Ghosh with her brilliant hitting down the order said the World Cup victory had a lot of importance.
“We have been waiting for the World Cup for a long time, [had the lingering feeling of] when we will lift the trophy. And today we have won the trophy. We are champions. I can’t explain this feeling but we are all very happy. You can see how emotional everyone is. It’s totally different. [Talk in the huddle] I think in the huddle, the talk was this is the last day, one more day and we just wanted to give it all. No matter what happens, we just wanted to put our bodies on the line. [On the finish] There was pressure of the final, there was so much crowd and fans. But I wanted to performed well, that was the main thing. Everyone trusted me that I could go out and hit and that helped me a lot,” Richa explained.
Injured Prajakta Rawal, who missed the semifinal and the final and was seen escorted by the support staff and the affectionate players around and joined the victory celebrations alongwith the victorious team on the podium, said she couldn’t express enough, there were no words.
“Well, I can’t express it enough. There’s no words. It’s not going to come out of my mouth. This flag on my shoulder, it means a lot to me. And you know, being here with my team, it’s just surreal. I mean, injuries are part and parcel of the game. I’m very happy that I was a part of this team, this winning team. You know, this team, I just love this team. I can’t express my feelings towards this team. So I’m very happy that we actually made it. And we’re the first [Indian] team who has won the World Cup in so long. And the whole India deserves this. To be very honest, it was very difficult for me to sit out and watch the match because it’s actually very difficult. It’s very easy to play inside, rather than watching from the outside. But seeing this energy, seeing this environment, it just, you know, it gave me goosebumps. Whenever there was a wicket, whenever there was a sixer, you can see the energy. It’s amazing. It’s genuinely amazing,” she said.
