Indian captain sounded confident ahead of the final against England of the ICC Women’s World Cup here in England today, repeating the same words she said when she was departing for the tournament in Mumbai – winning the World Cup would be a revolution. If she meant one on the scale of the 1983 victory of the men’s team that put cricket right there in the national imagination and was arguably the beginning of India’s honeymoon with the game of cricket, she did not really say. However, India’s run in the tournament, where they got the better of England in the first game, South Africa and finally the Australian team in the last match. The victory against Australia means that the girls are peaking at just the right time in the tournament, with captain Mithali Raj on a roll as she always is. The Indian captain expressed the desire to take the World Cup trophy home, the first time for the Indian women’s team, and added that winning the World Cup would be just the shot in the arm that women’s cricket needs in India, giving impetus to all the young girls out there who want to take up and excel at the sport.
Raj also added that it would give a platform for the team to showcase the kind of cricket they have been playing for about two years now. While it is true that the team has peaked, England have also done well for themselves after losing their opening game to India and it is going to somewhat hard to play the team on their home ground, given the extra motivation that comes from crowd support. Besides, England have won the tournament as recently as 2009 and there are still players who were present when England triumphed the world last. On the other hand, the Indians will be under a lot of pressure given that this is there second appearance in the finals of the World Cup, and also knowing that an entire nation will be watching how well they do come Sunday.
