Catches win matches! India national women's cricket team learned it the hard way on Saturday. Needing a win to keep the series alive against visiting Australia in the second ODI match at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India dropped as many as seven catches, yet they were still in the game until the final over. Looking back, though, one can claim without hesitation that a catch taken by a flying Phoebe Litchfield had already decided the fate of the game. (Report | Scorecard | More Cricket News)
Asked to bowl first, it took only two balls to unravel India's fielding woes -- one aspect of the game about which skipper Harmanpreet Kaur had spoken at length previously, on many occasions. After losing the first ODI by six wickets, she lamented that "the fielding was not upto the mark. It is something that didn't really work well for us."
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Renuka Singh opened the bowling, and she thought she had Phoebe Litchfield, yes Phoebe Litchfield, caught at extra cover. Tough chance, but catchable. And Amanjot Kaur, who got both her hands on the ball, failed to hold on.
She got a couple of more lives, first the ball falling just short of Smriti Mandhana in the fifth, and Yastika Bhatia dropping an edge in the eighth over. Litchfield indeed took full advantage of generous Indian fielders by playing a crucial knock, one that helped Australia post a winning total, eventually.
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Litchfield was not the only Aussie player to get multiple reprieves. Alana King was dropped by Harmanpreet and Deepti Sharma. Before that Sneh Rana and Mandhana had already given lives to Ellyse Perry and Annabel Sutherland, the player of the match.
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Aussies, like the Indians, didn't bring their A-game. But one catch was enough to do the damage. With Richa Ghosh and Rodrigues taking charge of the chase, India looked certain to win the match. Then, in the 34th over, a moment of brilliance from Litchfield ended the stand and effectively sealed the game, and series.
Rodrigues, batting on 44 off 53, played an uppish cover drive and Litchfield produced a Ponting-esque leap, full stretched to her right, and grabbed the ball out of thin air. Relive the moment here:
An 88-run stand was broken, and India never recovered despite Ghosh playing the knock of her life, a career-best 96.
Litchfield was the player of the match in the first ODI for her 78 runs off 89 balls. In the second match, she scored 63 off 98, the highest for the team.
