India Women’s ODI captain Mithali Raj said she never imagined that such a massive crowd would turn up at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 final between Australia and India earlier this month.
On March 8, 2020, a record 86,174 crowd attended T20 World Cup final between India and Australia at MCG where the hosts lifted the title for the record fifth time after thrashing Women in Blue by 85 runs.
As per reports in The Cricket Monthly, Raj said: “For me, it was, of course, a first. The closest I have experienced in my life is the 2017 ODI World Cup final at Lord's. That stadium was also packed, but considering MCG has a greater capacity than Lord's, it was great to see so many spectators.”
She added, “It was overwhelming because, as a woman cricketer, I hadn't ever imagined I would see a match where people pack a stadium to watch a women's cricket World Cup final like they would for a men's World Cup. In a lot of ways, women's cricket truly has arrived and can stand on its own.”
On Indian eves’ show in the tournament, she said: “The Indian bowlers were brilliant in the tournament. In the group stage, it is the bowlers who got the team those victories and took them into the semi-final. Pretty much all the matches were low-scoring, considering the kind of scores in the 2018 edition.”
Mithali signed off by saying, “It was unfortunate that the batting department didn't really come well for us, but again, the experience of all the bowlers - Poonam Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav - worked beautifully till the semi-finals.”
(With The Cricket Monthly Inputs)
