INSTANT REACTION! India WIN the Women’s World Cup 🇮🇳

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Nasser Hussain and Natalie Germanos react to the final of the Women’s cricket World Cup between India and South Africa.

00:00 Women’s game improvements
02:12 Shafali Verma
04:48 India
06:06 Deepti Sharma
07:10 India fielding
08:30 India teamwork
09:22 Laura Wolvaardt

#cricket #cricketworldcup #india

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Maybe the women’s world game changed because the game has gone like that in this part of the world. That though is going to send it into the stratosphere. Natalie and Nass. Yeah, I mean it was like you say it was going in that direction already with the WPL and the way um the cricket team have played over the last couple of years. They just needed this evening, this tournament to put a little seal on that deal. To be honest, the crowd have been magnificent. the team have been magnificent. They had that little blip in the middle of the tournament, but they started well and they’ve ended well. To be honest, in the end, they just had too many players in form compared to South Africa. If you look through that Indian lineup, there were a lot of players in pretty good nick by the end of the tournament. And unfortunately for South Africa, especially with the bat, they relied heavily on one or two and that’s why they had to play the extra batter. Um, fair play to South Africa. played a lot of good cricket themselves but India just too good as we’ve seen in this part of the world men or women any format they’re a very difficult side to beat as Bish said on commentary legacy created but I would say that’s for South Africa as well though given how they performed particularly the likes of Laura Wolfart that will be inspirational to kids back home absolutely um I was lucky enough to be at the 2017 Women’s World Cup and see Smitty Mundo score some runs over there and people were chanting her name already they were going into shops cuz they wanted the replica shirt with her name on the back and I reckon we’ll see more of that now from South Africa’s point of view as well. A vulf on the back, maybe even a Naen de Clark as well with a number 32. Marazan cup’s always being a South African favorite. She’ll continue to be one of those, but it’ll start to spread to some of the youngsters also within the side. You even saw shades of what Daxon can do and I know she’s an absolutely fantastic player and she’s got a great future ahead of her. But I think from South Africa’s point of view, in many ways they’ve reached a sort of a golden era in making three ICC finals in a row. The just just the women’s team. Um would they be disappointed with losing all three? Absolutely. There’s no doubt about it. But they are taking the next steps forward and that’s going to be important. Shafali is a great story, isn’t she? Remarkable. It is because she started in an incredible way. She burst on the scene. She was smashing everyone. She had this sort of carefree attitude that you do have as a youngster and then she got found out a little bit especially by the short ball opening the batting. Uh people went at her with the short ball and in this format she had to be left out and then she came back in and I thought it was a bit of a gamble to actually pick her in a semifinal and then pick her in a final and she played brilliantly. She batted brilliantly and it was a bit of genius to bowl her as well. I don’t know where that came from, but she they bowled her and she was outstanding. So, a really good selection and really good for her to come back into it and play the way that she has. It’s a little story on the short ball with Shafali Verme as you mentioned. She got found out. She used to play a lot with young boys when she was much younger and she learned a lot from them as well, but the young boys were scared of bowling bounces at her and hurting her because she’s a woman and they were worried about that. So she never used to face a lot of that type of bowling and what happened grew up on obviously flatter surfaces as well which makes the big difference and she never really trained the shorter ball and eventually people started to find it out and South Africa were one of those and it was actually Shabbish with her extra pace when they first played a bilateral series against her she found out that yeah the shorter ball is something she’s not comfortable with at all and I know for example former Indian coach Wan worked very hard with her to try and get her right with that shorter ball Don’t know that she’s quite there just yet. South Africa never really tested her out tonight. But the evolution of her game after being dropped and coming back in is a very very phenomenal story. In terms of a bowling though tonight, I mean, best laid plans and all that sort of stuff. You know, you team meetings, they’ll have matchups. I’m going to take down so and so. I mean, it might have just been an absolute gut feel. Throw her the ball. They might not be expecting it. See if I can rattle through a couple of others. Yeah. And from the reactions when she did pick up wickets, it seemed to have been Harman Pit’s call. It could have obviously come from anywhere. Swiss Mandanda, vice captain, she’s very involved. Even Adepty Sharma, for example, is so experienced. She may have possibly had a word, but from the reactions, it did seem like it was Harman Pre’s call because Jafali went straight to Harman Pre and jumped on her and was celebrating. So, it seemed like it was possibly her call. And I think that shows you a lot about Harman Pit’s instinct as a captain. That’s developed. I don’t feel like it was necessarily something that was very natural for her in the beginning of her career as test as the the captain of India. I think it started to develop and to do that in a final. It’s a brave call and it worked a treat. There was a period during the group stages where we didn’t think India would be lifting the World Cup. We thought they might be struggling to get through to the semi-final stage. Yeah, because they weren’t winning crucial moments. They played really well in matches and being ahead of the game and then inexplicably lost games they should have won. the game against South Africa in the group stages in Visak. Uh the game against England, you know, they were winning that game comfortably and then threw it away. So I think they did get a little bit of a ruthless streak, a bit of a wakeup call that even if you play good cricket, you’ve got to finish off the game. They also changed the balance of their side whereas South Africa decided in the end in the knockout games to go with the extra batter because they were worried about batting. India realized that they were going to come here play against good sides on good pitches and probably needed the extra bowling option brought Reno Singh Takor back into the side uh and never really looked back. The fielding was a bit up and down. Um even today towards the end they just dropped a couple of chances but those two spinners as well Deept Di Sharma and Shri Cha Shri in the middle there really were outstanding different types of spinners just slow um and loopy a little bit and Deept a little bit more targeting the stumps bowling flat she’s had a wonderful tournament I know she was player of the tournament but deep was outstanding throughout it with batam ball I I take your point about the the fielding and I take the point that they’ve missed a opportunities, but the way they threw themselves around in the field today just completely committed. Nat and I are having a had a little disagreement, didn’t we? Because I I would have given the the player of the match today to Deep. I mean, I know she got the other award, but you know, she took five for, but in terms of her overall contribution, how much do you put that down to the success of what we’re seeing now this evening? Well, not just this evening. And it’s a buildup for Deputy Sharma over the year really because they’ve found a new role for Deputy Sharma in that she’s now bowling a lot more towards the back end of an innings. Whereas before she used to bowl in the power play and then in those middles, now they use her in the last 10 and she’s been one of the most successful bowlers in the last 10 within the tournament. And she’s one of the reasons why India have been so good in the last 10 with the ball. So yeah, showing it again tonight. Just back on that fielding though, it’s often a barometer of where the sides at and how committed that they were completely chasing and diving everything. Ball very straight to start with, backed up in the field. I know they weren’t perfect. No, I mean in the end they slipping around in the outfield under a little bit of pressure, but they upped it from the semi-final. That’s all we can ask. They set the tone up front early. The bowling was very good up front. Seam’s bowling very straight, especially to Laura Wolar. As I say, they pretty much have every base covered. They got good quality seam. They got good quality spin. They are backed up. I mean, Jamima Rodriguez sort of sets the tone in the field diving around. Um, I thought they handle pressure well. Everyone talks about the pressure coming here for South Africa and the sea of blue and handing handling this cauldron. But actually, as a home side, as various Indian sides have found out, you’re under pressure. You lose this and you go very quickly from hero to zero in this part of the world and you’ll get you know vilified tomorrow and same old story losing another you talk about South Africa losing finals for this women it would be losing another final so that was a massive moment especially for Harman Pre when they lost those three games in the middle a few questions were being asked about Harman Pre’s captaincy and to see her go off and take that catch and run off with the team behind her that was a massive it’s been a massive tournament for her I was interested in how they would pull things back together as a team after a couple of those defeat because you sort of listened to one press conference then you heard another press conference and they were sort of throwing each other under the bus a wee bit and I thought oh here we go this could implode very very quickly actually it didn’t they got a dressing down from the coach apparently as well and that Harmon spoke quite honestly about that in the sense that after the England game in particular they took them into the dressing room and every single person was told why this was not something that should have happened and whether it was their role, something that they did wrong. And she was very clear on how he was quite strong with his words on them, which he normally isn’t. He’s quite normally quite quiet and he’s not somebody who will go at you and be aggressive. She said he was aggressive in the right ways. And they felt that this was important to get their campaign back on track. Laura Wilvart, we got to touch on her. I mean 100 in the World Cup final in a losing cause, a magnificent 100 in the semi-final, one of the best innings I’ve seen in a women’s ODI. And her numbers are quite staggering. 24 matches in ICC women’s World Cup history. And she slots in second behind Debbie Hawkley of Australia who played 45 of New Zealand. I do apologize, who played 45 games. I mean, those numbers are staggering. Absolutely brilliant. And I’ll tell you what, her numbers get even better as captain of South Africa. She averages close to 60 as captain, which is absolutely phenomenal. And her strike rate has gone up as well. So since she’s taken over the reigns as captain, she’s just got better and better. And to do it back to back semi-finals and a final in an ODI World Cup is really special. Taking her game going forward as well with a bat in terms of power, would you say? Yeah, I think so. I think every time we’ve seen her when she came in, she always had that touch. She always had that offside game. It’s a combination of power but also confidence. Once you become a confident cricket and you see that now the way she’s grown but she has taken her game on. She now believes she can open up offside leg side. I love the way she bats. I love the way she captains. I like the hunger for runs. I like the fact she’s done it in big games. That says a volume for your character that you can do it in a semi-final. 169 against England. Then you come to a final in a big run chase and get a 100 like that. So she’ll be hugely disappointed. You you set off as a South African captain wanting to create history. So she’ll love the runs, but she’ll feel a huge sense of disappointment more than anything. But she shouldn’t. She should be a very proud South African. She’s batted brilliantly throughout. Marazan Cat not quite at her best today with the ball. I thought blimely won the toss. Got to be a bit of residual moisture and it was almost like she would follow through was a bit limited as Well, I don’t know if she’s carrying an injury, but she didn’t have that that snap, that swing, whatever. It just was lacking in the early overs today. Yeah, it almost looked like she had the yips out of nowhere. And you and you you it’s almost inexplicable that that’s happened from semi-final to final. Of course, I think that’s what’s important is that she wasn’t able to take it from semi-final into the final. So, unfortunately for her, it just wasn’t her day. She was brilliant in the semi-final. She wasn’t day.