Twitter reacts to India's heartbreak and England's tremendous win in WWC 2017 final

July 23 was set to be a historic day in the history of Indian Women’s cricket. Team India had the best chance to win Women’s World Cup for the first time in the history. Australia and England had won 9 of the previous 10 events, with New Zealand being the odd one out, lifting the trophy in 2000. But the English Women who were also the hosts held their nerves under pressure to win World Cup for the 4th time in the history.

The journey to the final had been a team effort with the Indian team not relying on one or two players. In every match, they found a new player rising to the occasion. Today it was India’s talismanic fast bowler Jhulan Goswami who rose to the occasion. England were in a comfortable position when they were positioned at 146 for the loss of only two wickets.

But Goswami had different ideas, she took back to back wickets to jolt and derail the English innings. She concluded with figures of 3/23 dismissing Sarah Taylor, Natalie Sciver, and Wilson. England never quite recovered from this setback and ended up with an under par looking score of 228/7.

Poor start to the chase

The target was small, but India also had to tackle the pressure of the final. They needed a good start but that was not to be. Smriti Mandhana continued her poor form and got out for a duck. India now needed their skipper and arguably the best batter in the history of women’s game, Mithali Raj to fire. Raj got off to a decent start and was batting on 17 runs in 31 balls. Then disaster struck and she was run out half heartedly running a quick single.

Poonam Raut was looking in good nick, and she was joined at the crease by the star of the semi-final, Harmanpreet Kaur. These two built on a great partnership of 95 runs, with both of them getting to their respective fifties in the process. Harmanpreet then tried a risky sweep shot but was caught in the deep. India still needed 91 to win but the cool head of Poonam Raut and a cameo from Veda Krishnamurthy ensured they were on the brink.

Then the heartbreak happened

At one point the Women in Blue needed just 38 runs and still had 7 wickets in hand but they suffered one of the worst collapses. They lost 4 wickets in just 13 balls with an addition of a mere 10 runs. India still needed 28 runs and had only 3 wickets left.

Deepti Sharma and Shikha Pandey came together and added 17 runs. And India looked set to win but Pandey was run out. Even Deepti Sharma succumbed to pressure. Anya Shrubsole was the destroyer in chief and ended up with figures of 6/46. India lost the World Cup final by 9 runs and were left to dwell on what could have been! On the other hand, England celebrated the victory they had snatched from the jaws of defeat.

Here is how Twitter reacted to the Women’s World Cup final