Women Cricket World Cup, IND-W vs ENG-W: Smriti Mandhana shoulders blame for collapse

From needing 57 runs from as many balls and with four wickets in hand, India shockingly succumbed to a four-run defeat against England at the Holkar Stadium in Indore on Sunday (October 19, 2025).

A largely comfortable chase went awry despite Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana setting up the foundations for what should have been an easy win in the women’s World Cup.

Smriti, who fell in the 42nd over, shouldered the blame for the collapse.

“We could have done better with our shot selections. It started from me, so I will take it on me, the shot selection should have been better. We just needed six runs per over. Maybe we should have taken the game deeper. The collapse started from me,” she said.

“I was trying to aim over covers and I mistimed that shot. Maybe the shot wasn’t needed at that time. I needed to be more patient, throughout the innings I was trying to tell myself to be patient and not to play aerial shots. But the emotions took over for that one, which never helps in cricket.”

“Walking back, I was pretty confident that we’ll be able to get the win,” she admitted.

With constant balance issues in the campaign, India bit the bullet and went for a six-bowler lineup. This meant Jemimah Rodrigues made way for Renuka Singh Thakur.

Smriti said that the conditions in Indore and the need to find the right combination were what prompted a rejig of the team combination.

“In the last two matches, we thought that five bowling options were not good enough, especially on a flat track like Indore or how maybe the second match in Vishakhapatnam [against Australia] played out. With five options, if one bowler has a bad day, it really costs us. It was definitely a very tough call to drop a player like Jemi, but sometimes you need to do those sorts of things to get the balance right,” she said.

The 29-year-old also said that India, unlike its rivals Australia, England or New Zealand, does not have the privilege of a strong bowling depth. She, however, said that the team combination will be tinkered with on a match to match basis.

“We are not privileged enough to have our batters who could bowl a few overs, which a lot of other teams have. But it’s not like this [six bowler setup] is going to be there, we’ll have to see how the situation is, how the wicket will play and then we’ll take a call.”

India’s hopes of nicking the last spot in the semifinals depends heavily on victories in its remaining matches.

“In cricket, nothing comes easy. For sure, the next match [against New Zealand] would be the virtual quarterfinal in terms of getting into the top four. You don’t play cricket to have easy days. We’ll all take this in our stride. We know where we could have gotten done better, where we went wrong. When you’re playing a sport, you’re meant to have good days and bad days. It’s about how you take those bad days and we move on.”