Sanjay Manjrekar Blames Pitch For Indian Losing: Former Indian cricketer turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar believes that the pitch played a major role in the Indian Women’s Cricket Team’s defeat to New Zealand in their opening game of the 2024 Womens T20 World Cup.
India took on New Zealand in Match Four of the World Cup, which was also the first match of the tournament for both sides, on October 4 in the Dubai International Stadium. The Kiwis won the toss and decided to bat first, getting off to a solid start, scoring at around 10 runs per over and not losing a wicket in the powerplay.
The inning then slowed down in the middle overs, but captain Sophie Devine picked the pace up at the death and took the team to 160 runs in 20 overs, scoring a fine 50 in the process.
It seemed like the New Zealand team played on a completely different pitch because when India came into bat, they could not hold onto their wickets at all. Within the powerplay, the Women in Blue had lost three wickets, including captain Harmanpreet Kaur and star batter Smriti Mandhana.
In what was a dismal batting performance, India lost wickets consistently, getting all out in the 19th over for a total of 102, losing the game by 58 runs.
Sanjay Manjrekar Blames Pitch For Indian Losing
While fans and experts are throwing the blame at everything and everyone, Sanjay Manjrekar believes that the pitch is somewhat to blame for the India loss. Reviewing the game on Star Sports, the former Indian batter had this to say,
“The start was not good in bowling because the first one or two overs were very expensive, and even in batting. If I have to review this match, the conditions in Dubai for this match were suiting New Zealand a lot.”
Manjrekar then went on to add that the New Zealand team recognised and took advantage of the conditions better, like not bowling short balls on this pitch that was sticky and provided movement.
“If this match had been in Sharjah, the result might have been totally different because, if you see this pitch, it seemed like they were not playing in Dubai, but Dunedin and New Zealand made the most of it. They bowled very full. They didn’t bowl even a single short delivery,” he said.
However, the 59-year-old also put the Indian batting order at fault. None of the Indian batters put up a good show, with skipper Kaur’s 14-ball-15 being the team’s highest individual score. Manjrekar had this to say about the Indian batting,
“The sort of shots they played, I am slightly disappointed with the way they go out. You could have fallen short of 160 because I feel this was a big score on that pitch, but the batters played similar shots and got out.”
India’s journey for the remainder of the 2024 Womens T20 World Cup is going to be a difficult one. Harmanpreet Kaur’s women are in a difficult Group A alongside New Zealand, arch-rivals Pakistan, defending Asia Cup winners Sri Lanka, and defending T20 and ODI World Champions Australia. Only two of these teams will make it to the semi-finals.
Get the Latest Cricket Updates at IceCric.News. Also, Follow Our Social Media for Live Updates – Facebook & Instagram.
