CHENNAI: As Anya Shrubsole ran in to bowl the fourth delivery of her final over, trying to defend ten runs from nine balls, at Lord’s on July 23, 2017 — a slower delivery which Rajeshwari Gayakwad almost yorked herself and lost the stumps — a billion hearts were broken in India. Five years on, the memory still haunts the Indian fans for it was a moment of what could have been.
But not for this Indian team. As they take on the defending champions England, vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur believes that whatever happened in the past is history. “If you look at the overall record, we started the tournament (in 2017) by beating England in the first match,” Kaur said in the pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
“It’s not like we always have to look at past performances. I know they have played well against us, but right now, it is all about the momentum and the momentum is on our side and for us, we just want to focus on the things that we are doing well... We want to stay in the moment and that is what we have been discussing in the team meetings,” she said.
Kaur is not far off the point. After a series of poor results, India have found some momentum in the lead up to the World Cup. They won both the warm-ups, defeated Pakistan, lost against New Zealand but came back stronger versus West Indies. Their key batters are amongst runs, spinners are dominating and pacers are doing well with the new ball. With four points from three games, India sit in the third place and it is fair to say that they are on a roll.
At the other end of the spectrum are the defending champions England, who are going through a rut. Ever since they landed in Australia for the Ashes series in January, things have gone downhill as they are yet to register a single victory across formats in the last two months.
Which is probably why when asked if England could take some confidence from the fact that they did well against India recently, wicket-keeper Amy Jones said that it would help. “When you play any team, it's quite natural to sort of look back at the last games that you've played against them. And, to have that fairly recent success against them, I think as a group will definitely give us confidence,” she said.
They have lost all three matches in the World Cup so far and the clash on Wednesday is a do or die for them as another defeat would mean that they are officially out of the tournament. Will India take advantage of this situation? Kaur feels that they don’t want to look at the position England are in and would want to keep doing the things that have worked well for them so far.
“I think for us, very important to — the way we performed in the last game, we just need to continue that other than just thinking about what their weakness is and what are their positive points. And right now, we are only looking at our strengths, and the areas where we are doing well and the areas where we need to improve as a team,” Kaur said.