The ongoing Women's ODI World Cup, currently being hosted in India and Sri Lanka, stands as the focal point of our discussion today. In an engaging conversation, co-host Mayank welcomes esteemed journalist Sarthak Dev, who provides insightful commentary on the tournament's dynamics amidst the backdrop of rain delays and the impressive performances of various teams. Sarthak articulates his observations regarding the strength of the competing teams, the stadium experience in Vizag, and the media coverage surrounding the event. As we delve deeper into the nuances of the matches, we explore the strategies employed by teams, standout players, and the evolving narrative of women's cricket. Join us as we navigate the intricacies of this remarkable tournament and contemplate its implications for the future of women's cricket.

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Sarthak Dev (@devellix) / X

Lines on The Grass | Sarthak Dev | Substack

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Hello and welcome to the Last Wicket.

I'm your host Benny and thank you for joining us folks.

A lot has happened in the cricket world since our last episode, but in this edition we are going to focus on the ongoing Women's ODI World cup being played in India and Sri Lanka.

In the midst of the usual rain delays and Aussie domination, there have been some thrilling games with clutch knocks and standout bowling as well as subplots involving umpiring, drama and tactical head scratchers.

So to discuss this, my co host Mayank brought on journalist Sarthak Dev who is covering the tournament.

They discuss how the World cup is shaping up as well as shared thoughts on the strength, stadium experience and media coverage.

So stay tuned and for more Sarthat Dev, check out his substack lines on the grass and give him a follow at Develix.

Sak.

Welcome to the Last Wicket.

Thank you for joining us.

How are you doing today?

Nice to be here, man.

Thanks for calling me over.

Wonderful.

Bit of a, bit of a bummer with last evening's game but yes, yes, enjoying the World cup so far.

It's been, it's been a really, really good close.

Tight World Cup.

Yeah, absolutely.

Couple of thrillers we've already had.

I think there's been, I think two rained out games including last night or maybe three.

I'm, I'm losing count but.

But yeah, there's a few rained out games but other than that I think we've had some really good games.

But before we get into, you know, the cricket and the performance of the team, I know you visited Vizag and attended India's game, so just share with us what your experience was like.

Yes, I went to watch India vs Australia advisag.

I wanted to catch both the games that week which is India, South Africa and India Australia.

Both were in Vizag, of course, but I think I got caught up midway so could only go for Australia.

The game was outstanding.

I guess I'll come to that in a second.

It very weirdly given what we've been reading about Guahati and you know, how much buzz there was in terms of hoardings, in terms of, you know, radios and everything else kind of building up the World cup.

We didn't find much in Vizag as in there were two inflatable, like two balloons, you know, stringed high in the sky which you could see from the beach.

But from the drive from the airport to Greater Vizag, which is where the stadium is near the Rushikonda beach, we didn't find a single hoarding about the World Cup.

The cab driver knew about the games, but he kind of knew it because he must have read it somewhere or something like that.

But there was no kind of hype, so to speak.

And even on the day of going to the game, the closest you got to hype was the, you know, replica jersey vendors placed maybe a mile outside the stadium.

And that's when the first time you got to hear or see things about the World cup.

And which I felt was a bit odd for a station that hosts a lot of cricket.

Vizag gets a fair amount of men and women.

And what also compounded the surprise was just the turnout for the game was outstanding.

The crowd filled up, I would say, by an hour, hour and a half.

By the 20th over, it was quite packed.

It was loud, it was noisy.

At many times, when the MC interrupted, it felt like he didn't need to.

In terms of that, there was enough noise.

So a mix of good and bad, I would say, where inside the stadium, the vibe was excellent.

The crowd was, you know, obviously supportive of the national team, but there was enough appreciation for Australia as well.

There were some Indian fans who were dressed up in Australian colors and they were cheering for the Australians, which is great.

So, yeah, I. I wish there was a little more so that maybe the fans who weren't clued in could also get.

Get into that buzz.

But great experience inside the stadium.

It's a nice stadium.

It's small, but it's a really nice stadium.

That's.

That's really good insight.

I was curious, you know, just.

There's been a lot of discussions before the World cup started on whether the venues were correctly selected, whether some venues, like Delhi, for example, which has shown full houses for some of the women's Premier League games, was, you know, was not selected.

So there's a lot of talk about that.

Now that you've attended Vizag or now that the World cup is underway and you've seen some games on TV as well, what are your thoughts on that discussion with all this new information?

The.

It's a good question, actually, because the World cup has been pretty decently attended, not all games, and it's very hard to.

I mean, you keep midweek weekday games also.

It's a lot of it clashed with Navratri, and that's festive time, so people want to spend their time with family.

So that asterisk has to be put, like, for, like.

For India's first game in Guwahati, the tournament opener, the crowd was substantial until, say, midway through the evening by which time they had to go out because it was I think Ashtami night.

And that night is a pious night in, in our cultures.

So you know, you always, regardless of what else is going on, you want to kind of spend time with family.

So keeping all that in mind, it has been a well attended World Cup.

But there is the reason for a lot of that discourse prior to the tournament was in A the intent of giving the right venues.

B how have you picked these venues?

Because earlier there was also a new Chandigarh that was picked and Bangalore was a later edition before it got obviously taken off the of the roster.

Now thing is new Chandigarh stadium has just been built.

You haven't had the chance to before the Australia ODI series just before the the World cup.

You haven't had the chance to test out the appetite for the women's cricket game.

Now I think we've, we've gone far enough in the evolution of the sport to understand that the dynamics and the mechanics and the kinetics of it is slightly different from the men's game.

There is, it's no less fun or dramatic but it's just.

You have to watch it kind of.

You can't compare the COVID drive of an Adinde clerk or a Chamaria Depattu from last night.

Man.

Wow.

I can do a podcast with you on Samari itself.

But yeah, to.

To say a Marco or a Kohli cower drive.

It's just not fair.

Neither.

Yeah.

And so just did up to.

There are some stations through the WPL and through a lot of the women's games that have been tested for the appetite.

I think in.

So when you're having that for the first time, go to the grounds which will not only fill up, but grounds that will actively participate in the game.

Right.

That's what we want.

Not just numbers but crowds that will, that will be the 12th person.

That will be the 12th man.

And honestly I think between you and me, we don't really care if they're parochial.

We just want them loud and noisy and participating in the game regardless.

Because in with India's cricket audience, when you're doing it in Bangalore, Bombay, Delhi and not just to name the major cities, there are also like non major stations that do.

Well what you're getting it is a World cup that feels like a World cup and a major event.

And there were murmurs that a lot of the Guwahati crowd came because, you know, there was.

That there was a tribute plan for Zubin Girl, which is important, of course, and it's very, very important because, you know, Assam lost something very, very close to their heart.

But all, all, you know, all things considered, the, the picking of venues, I do think could have been better.

Two stations that, that have an.

A deep, deep understanding, knowledge and appreciation for the women's game.

And I'm saying only this, for the World cup, for an ODIC, for a T20 series, please take it to stations that are new.

You know, you create the hype, you create the buzz, expose them to the women's game, make them appreciate it.

But when you're playing a major tournament, this is your chance to make it, you know, loud and boisterous in all the right ways.

And the intent was never there.

And that was shown from the first list of venues where, you know, in that, in that essay that I think I did, I think there's one that Sharda did before I was talking to Sharda, that a lot of these stations, for example, was it Indore, was it Gwala?

They had.

They had never hosted women's game.

Like the last game in one of those stations was 20 years back.

Knew Chandigarh had never hosted a game.

It was a new stadium.

Right.

I think Trivandrum has never hosted a women's game.

So if you're taking it to these stations, there will be obvious teething problems, rightly so.

So that showed that the intent was never there.

And it's to the crowd's credit that they have really turned up and they've supported the game.

Absolutely.

It is, it is nice to see, you know, crowds coming in.

So it really does add a lot to the game, even if they are partisan.

And, yeah, it's great to see that they're turning out, despite all the issues we've had with ticket releases and all of that which we won't get into.

And the only other question I'll ask you about your.

Can I interrupt you for one second?

Can I interrupt you for one second?

India and Australia have not played a test match in Calcutta.

And they've been here seven times, maybe.

Six times, seven, eight times.

I think they played one.

They've played one at Wang, and they have not played at Eden Gardens a single test match since that day.

Which is, which is just wild.

But.

Yeah, go ahead.

Sorry.

Yeah, no, I know it's a tangent, but it is annoying how poorly we manage.

You know, we look at somewhere here, I have a ball from Lords right here, and it talks about, you know, being the home of cricket and they like, talk about legacy and history and they market it so well, even if, you know, some of it is exaggerated.

And, and I think we go to the other end of not preserving the history and legacy that some of these stadiums have.

So it's a little disappointing.

I understand your digression, but I guess the only other question I have on your stadium watching experience is what was it like in terms of facilities?

That's been always a concern.

I know in the WPL initially there were issues with women's washroom being closed, which makes no sense.

Any such insights from Wysag?

Okay, I'm cautious of, of giving a strong opinion here.

Reason being when the tickets were being released, they released in, I think three batches.

First was 100 rupee tickets for the general stand, which we all bought.

That was like the first go and you wanted to attend the game.

Then there was, I think a couple of more stands opened which were about 150 rupees, you know, and some.

Something similar, maybe 250.

And then I think three days before the game, they released tickets for the pavilion terraces, so to speak, just above the dugouts.

And you know, usually for an ODA game, if you're having a World cup at your city, you obviously, you know, you just want to go.

And the facilities inside were outstanding.

The food was on the house, the washrooms were clean.

But I also won't want to generalize that for the rest of the stadium.

I haven't heard any, any, you know, problematic the reports or anyone, any tweets that said that, you know, the facilities were bad or something.

But obviously we shouldn't assume that they weren't in our stand.

They were pretty nice and I think we were expecting them to be because they were, you know, just the dressing rooms and the daga.

So they were pretty premium that way.

They were not hospitality, but they were pretty premium.

And that bit Indian stadiums do well, their premium seating and their premium facilities are always decent.

And that is also a problem where they do it for the premium seats and they don't do it for the rest of the stadium.

But yeah, I haven't read or heard anything and maybe, you know, over the World cup we can ask more people and we'll get a better idea of how the facilities have been.

Totally fair.

Totally fair.

Let's talk about the coverage as well.

One of the things that I've noticed, and again, this is maybe me being, you know, not as well informed about the women's game a few years ago, but one thing I've seen is just the amount of online writers that are covering the game.

You know, obviously there's a sense of mainstream media covering it, but just the data availability platforms like Substack have had such a great influence because just with the time zones, I've been missing a lot of games or at least watching only highlights, but the ability to just go back and figure out, oh wait, Australia did really well by bowling all these slower balls and using the pitch better like that just enhances the game.

Even if you've not watched it live.

What are your thoughts on the level of reporting and the coverage that is, that is going on in this World Cup?

Outstanding, man.

And I do think the women's cricket game has a lot of really good coverage.

Like the people I can, you know, rattle off the top of my head, they cover the women's game regularly.

Like, they're very dedicated reporters who also happen to be at this World Cup.

And for example, I'd like to shout out Vinayak, I think from Eden Express, there's Lavanya from Sports Star Gomesh from New Indian Express, there is.

Who else?

Amrin from Hindustan Times.

So, and obviously Tarotra, who's.

Who runs bachelor cricket stories, who does these data articles and who's really put an effort to say that, okay, we don't, these guys are doing great coverage.

We don't want to kind of relay the story.

Let's use data to find out what happened for real.

And a lot of these guys, like Arvin, I love when you're a Gomesh.

They are not only giving us match reports to read.

If you've missed a match, but a lot of their coverage are stories of people and two, two reports that, you know, have stayed with me, both by Gomesh.

Actually, one is an Amanjot story and one is by.

One is of Tasnim Brits and Excellently researched, excellently covered.

So these are, these are, these are reporters who generally cover women's cricket really well and, you know, they are your safe bets if you're ever wanting to get into the game after the World cup before another tournament.

So I've been very happy with the coverage, but not surprised, I'll be honest.

These guys are exceptional.

And it's.

It's one thing that I do think happens with the women's cricket game, at least for now, is the people who cover it do it out of sincerity and, you know, love for the sport and not necessarily to.

To come across as, you know, adjacent to a celebrity.

So they do it because they really know about the game.

They know about the sports dynamics, they know about the people who play it.

You can see that.

You can see that the, that the players and coaches seem to have an easy relationship with them.

These guys are getting to ask tough questions, for example, to.

And we'll come to that when we discuss India's performance.

They've been asking, they've not just gone to the pressers and they've asked, you know, how does it feel to win?

What does the crowd look like?

They've asked tough questions about good and bad things in performance.

What could be better, what could be not.

So, yeah, I think.

I think they've.

They've always kind of done it from the point of, you know, we care about the sport, we care about the people who play the sport, and it's really flourished during the World cup because there are just so many stories.

And in fact, the ICC team, too, the ICC Digital Media team, has done a superb job.

There is a video they've put out of Maruf Akhtar last night.

It's heartbreaking, but it is so well done.

It's done tastefully.

It's never done in a patronizing manner.

It's done very tastefully.

Yeah.

I will admit that even BCCI's website surprised me this time where they had good stories covering in one.

Arlene Dual had a.

Had a feature as well, which was pretty nice to see because we.

Yes, yes.

So they've done a good job this time.

So that has been great to watch.

So both from, you know, just a big media perspective as well as some of the writers that you mentioned some of the bloggers that you mentioned, they've been doing a great job.

I think the one difference that I do notice is, and I think you hit it on the head when you said this, that these people have covered women's cricket for a while.

It was not on TV as much, so their knowledge was limited.

So I think the coverage suffered because of that as well.

They obviously had the right intent, but, you know, many of them or most of them had the right intent, but they just didn't have, you know, enough background on the game.

And I think, you know, I was of that mindset as well.

And having, like seen a lot more women's cricket, I think I, as you said, you know, you appreciate the differences and you appreciate the way the game moves a little better.

Yeah, 100%.

I couldn't agree more.

I think a the data, the amount of data that's there has helped because now a lot of the coverage, like you very rightly said, has moved to instead of just narratives which are always nice to hear, but there is also that critical eye that you get in the coverage of people discussing some very deep tactical stuff.

But there's also this thing of you now see reporters who are so well enmeshed within the women's game that they're now able to almost spread their own wings that we can write this story and we can write that story and it's just the breadth of the range of stories that we've gotten.

It's an ecosystem, obviously, that's constantly maturing, but it's a really good ecosystem so far.

And I did see some content creators and reel makers at the stadium, unfortunately.

And I hope they're kept away for as long as possible.

I don't know how long that's going to happen, but so far, the ecosystem, there's a lot of sincerity to the coverage ecosystem.

Yeah, that's good to hear.

And I do hope that the fan clubs and, and stands and all of that bullshit stays away, which has unfortunately taken over the Indian men's team, at least if not teams outside of India.

Let's get into the cricket though.

So we'll start with the host nation, of course, the Indian team.

We are an India focused Podcast generally, so we'll cover everyone, but we'll, we'll talk about them.

They obviously started really well, started with wins, comfortable wins as well.

But the last two games have shown some of their shortcomings.

Maybe I'll ask, you know, how did you see them before the World Cup?

Obviously Australia have been favorites, but where do you, where do you think they ranked overall, apart from Australia.

From a purely ranking perspective?

I was having this conversation with my friend.

I, I, I felt this team was, was getting to a place of reaching peak performance.

There are some outstanding players and we'll discuss them, but there were parts of the engine that were still fitting into place and I have no doubt that they will fit going forward, but you can tell that a lot of the squad is really young.

They're playing, you know, their first major tournament, it's a home tournament, so that's an added pressure, you know, and they are, they're learning how this team works.

And for example, Pratika and Herlene are both so young that I have no doubts that in two years they'll, they'll figure out where they're lacking.

And the problems that we see today, they will not exist in two years time and sometimes the team needs that.

A lot of the same players went and they won and they just looked so complete.

So sometimes the team just needs a little bit of time to, to, for the younger players to mature, to get each other's dynamics well.

And I really appreciate what the team management has done in bringing a lot of the young talents in.

So it never feels like, okay, you know, an old person's club.

Kranti Goat made her debut this year in May, just before the England tour.

Right.

And, and they didn't waste time in saying that, okay, should we, should we not?

Renuka might get fit before the World cup, so we don't really need her.

They just brought her in that your, your bloody goat just come in.

Pratika has just been persisted with.

She's done outstandingly well, of course, but you were getting her in and you know, preparing yourself to say that, okay, someone as influential as with the stature of a Shefali Verma, we might have to also have options.

So from I, I do see them as very good, but not the finished Product not near.

I think they'll be an outstanding team and one of the favorites to win.

That's, that's totally fair.

Yeah, there's definitely a number of, you know, early 20s players who are, as you said, you know, playing their first few tournaments or first major tournament for sure.

So yes, long road ahead.

Nonetheless, I personally thought they would be semi finalists for sure.

I definitely thought, you know, they should not considering home conditions, considering their strength with spin, they would be able to make the most of the conditions and qualify as the top four.

But the performances, particularly in the last two games and to be fair, like in the South Africa game, they had it under control until one amazing innings.

So apart from that one amazing innings, I feel like they, they've had definitely some rough edges that need to be worked on.

You mentioned, you know, Harleen De, you mentioned Rawal and their, you know, their strike rate, their strike rotation has been something that has been brought up as a concern then finishing wars against South Africa.

So it really pretty much reminded me of that.

Although, you know, in, in this, in this game it felt like the bowlers had it under control.

So there's definitely areas of improvement.

But I do feel that they have been probably a tad under.

Under par in the sense that there were certainly situations where they could have been a little bit better both in terms of, you know, details like strike rotation or even playing combination.

That obviously has been debated quite a bit.

So what are your thoughts on that?

I agree.

I totally agree.

I think they've been under par in every game including Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

And in, in both games they had to be kind of bailed out a little by the lower order has been superb.

SNA with that innings was outstanding.

Aman Jot has scored and I'm not saying they shouldn't have to bail you out.

The whole point of having batting balance like that is for, you know, everyone has to contribute in a long tournament and that's fine.

But I do agree they've been under par.

The batting hasn't.

I think the Australia game was the first time when the top order really, really clicked together.

I don't think that's happened so far in the first three games that didn't happen.

So it left a lot of pressure on the middle order in the middle overs.

Against a team that's not very good in the middle overs, you know, it's, it, it becomes a bit more complex because had this team been a superb middle overs team, you could have, you could have said, okay, even if the top few goes, then we have, we have the muscle to, you know, go through the middle overs.

Which is not the case, which is not the case for India.

They, they struggle in the middle overs unless Smriti or Pratika play are long innings.

And what I was bringing up, even with the reportage thing is a lot of these questions were posed to Amon Mazumdar and Harmanpreet in right after the Australia game.

They were asked after the South Africa game.

And both have been gracious to admit that this is an issue that they are aware of.

They haven't hidden from it.

And I, I would hold out hope that through a World cup they will.

It's, these are not new issues.

Obviously they've persisted for a while, but through a World cup things have a way of falling into place and doing and just working out.

So I do think they've been under par.

I would, I would look at the bowling slightly with a little more charitable view because a lot of these bowlers are really young bowlers.

Yeah, Krantigur has just started.

Obviously Amanjot is young and they are missing Renuka at her best.

Renuka at her best is a beast.

And, and so I, I, I do think that the bowling's done a lot of what they could have.

The bowling depth obviously is an issue which they seem opaque too in the sense that they don't want to change it.

And I, I am fearful that they might change it for one game and if that game doesn't work out they'll fall back into the old habits, which is maybe the wrong way to go about it.

But yeah, the battings bar in the Australia game, the batting's not been up to scratch.

Yeah, I think on the, on the bowling front, before we talk about the batting, I mean I completely agree with your points but I think on the bowling front it feels to me like last few years Herman Preetha has not been bowling as much.

So suddenly trusting herself as you know, that number six option is, is a big risk but she has no options.

Yeah, but she has no other options considering the lineup she's trying to pick and yes, the batting.

If it feels like we've seen glimpses of, you know, consistency, Ravel's done well.

Smriti Mandana was before the tournament like scored the second fastest, not 50 hundred in women's cricket.

So clearly they have form on their side and it's about just clicking and sometimes in these long tournaments, which we've seen in so many of these World Cups with the round robin format, teams take a little bit to get into rhythm.

So hopefully some of that comes together.

But.

But the other feeling that I've gotten is, you know, as.

As I've seen more of the WPL or seen participation from certain Indian players in the hundred or other tournaments like the BBL is, there are clear improvements in certain sections.

So I don't think I've ever seen an Indian team field as well as they do.

Do they still drop catches?

There's an odd stumping that is missed.

Yes, of course, but it is a substantially better fielding side than ever before.

But to your point, like the middle over still appear to be an issue.

We've improved quite a bit on power hitting now.

We have not just Richard Ghosh down the order who can hit, but Mandana's game has improved quite a bit as a power hitter and so we have a lot of firepower from that perspective.

Deepti Sharma has improved quite a bit as a finisher.

So a lot of these things have, you know, those improvements have come in but there's still a lot of fine tuning to be done and I mean I'm not, you know, trying to be critical.

I do think they're on the right path.

But yeah, I think you're to the way you started it.

They don't look like a finished team just yet.

And that's where the challenge comes in.

Once they get into the semis.

100 and I was, you know, you covered the improvement so well that, you know, there has been a very like, tangible, very distinct improvement in, in power hitting in just the range that like the zones they access when they're power hitting.

Look, Smriti has always been a very compact, controlled, very, you know, a very complete batter that way where she could access the offside.

She had that lovely fluid offside kind of, you know, drive and locked in shots and she could, obviously she's very strong on her leg side.

But the more you see is because a lot of the teams are bowling wicket to wicket to Indian team and because their strike rotation is a problem, they're trying to not give them any width or Anything on the leg side and just, you know, bowl straight, bank straight.

But what I've seen at least in the last 15 overs of India's innings is along with, I think Richard down, actually Harman down.

Harman, Jemima, Richard onwards.

They just can access, you know, all the, the entire field.

I think Jemima's first ball against Australia, the ball was on the channel and she just, she stood still and she just touched it for four behind the wicket keeper.

So she, she came ready.

She was, she was like, you know, fleet on a feet key.

Okay, we'll just do this.

So that with the improvements has been outstanding and you'd expect that, you'd expect that out of a team that's constantly improving, that's got, you know, it's got people in the, in the leadership who are very ambitious, who want to be the best they can be.

And so, so yeah, full credit to them.

They've been superb.

The fielding so funny because there was a midfield miss field on the first ball, if I remember correctly, in the Australia innings and I think it was Amanjot who made two miss fields in the first two, three overs.

From there on the ground fielding was astonishingly good and it, it was a credit to them because for the first innings you were blown away by what you saw of Australia's ground fleet.

Feeling their panthers, those guys are straight up panthers and all of them, but, and even they had a couple of misfields, a couple of, you know, close chances go down.

But generally and the general vibe is it, you know, if, if it's in their range, it's not going through.

I think I thought India were also outstanding in the, in the, in the ground fielding and I think Richard will get a lot more comfortable as a keeper as she, as she plays more.

I think she's still on her upward trajectory as a keeper.

So yeah, I think that's very, that's been very encouraging.

Like you very rightly said, the WPL BBL100, these things naturally have had a very positive impact on this team.

I don't think I'm in the position to comment how it has impacted in Australia and in England who already had such good foundations, but the improvement in the Indian team is very obvious to see.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I think the advantage that the Aussies and English have, obviously not taking away from their skill and their, their strategies, their, the way they execute some of their tactics, but they were just professional, way ahead of the game and so it feels like some of the other teams are often catching up.

And, and speaking of The English and, and the Kiwis, those are the two next two key battles for India.

Hopefully, you know, obviously they'll hope to win both and make sure that they are in the top four qualifying for the semi final at least beat New Zealand.

I think that would be, you know, the second best case scenario for them.

But what do you think is, are there chances against those two teams considering how they're shaping up?

Both teams of course have a number of, you know, match winners who can on their day, right.

Single handedly just take the game away.

I, I think India will go into believing that they can beat both, especially because what happened in England this summer, generally when they go up against England there is this thing of okay, we, we're good but you know, they just might come with more ammunition.

But they went to England and beat England, which is like a huge deal.

So they will go confident.

I am just, that spell against South Africa by England has, it's, it's probably going to be the first 10 hours against South Africa.

Just the control of what and just the differences they brought, all the spinners just, they bowled so differently.

They, the South African batters had nowhere to go.

So it just kind of has left a bit of an impact on me.

I think there should be confidence that we can beat both and it's important whichever way the England, England match goes, not to obviously, you know, trivialize the challenges New Zealand will bring.

But I would like to think if the better they perform against England, the more confidence they will carry against New Zealand and then Bangladesh, which will not be an easy game by the way.

The way Bangladesh has been bowling, you know, the power hitting that their kids have shown in the middle order, Shauna and all, it's, it's not going to be an easy game against Bangladesh, but so they will have to beat definitely one of them and play to their highest potential against the other to carry that confidence into Bangladesh and the semis if it were to happen.

And, and it's, it's a bit naive, bit utopian, but I guess my hope on from then onwards would be just, you know, unshackle yourself and just, just play like the last game in the ODI series where they were chasing 400 against Australia, they just let themselves go.

They just said, okay, you know, you can't build an innings from here, let's just go and let's enjoy ourselves.

And you had such a great game.

You had these players expressing themselves and you know, you know, going for it.

I would, I would hope to see after the pressure of the England game, if they play really well, I would think that from the New Zealand game onwards that, that freedom of expression would come there.

Okay, I think, you know, we are good.

Let's now hit another gear.

Let's see how it goes.

I won't be easy because World cup pitches a are different.

New Zealand and New Zealand have a lot of experience in their bowling.

Well, and Bangladesh have been just so impressive.

Yeah, they have been so impressive this time.

Absolutely.

I, yeah, I think, you know, as you mentioned, the win in England, so India 1, 2, 1 in England back in July, they also won against New Zealand last year to one at home.

So they'll definitely have that in mind.

For sure.

They have some experience against these sides and I think they're playing land more than many of the other sides anyways.

So, yes, they definitely have some, you know, knowledge about the, the team that they're playing.

I, I do think sometimes these World cup runs are made by, you know, one win which gets a strong team.

So I think that England game is a big one if we can come up with, you know, the, the right answers and, and just execute the plans better.

Of course, it's not easy to change within a World Cup.

You know, some of the issues we've talked about, strike rotation, things like that, that don't resolve overnight.

But I'm sure there are smart people in there who are working and trying to find the best way to optimize whatever strengths each of the players have.

The other piece that I was going to talk about is really the stars of the talents on display.

And you touched on Bangladesh already, so I'll start with Bangladesh.

But they in general, at least in my opinion, appear to be extremely, you know, improving.

Like all the other teams have been showing constant improvement.

Australia has been sort of another tier altogether throughout this period.

But thoughts on Bangladesh, and especially like some of the young talents like Marufaktar, who you already mentioned, you know, really exciting pacer.

I've been like.

And the more we say it, I guess I don't want it to ever sound patronizing, but the, the way Bangladesh have even executed that there's a smartness to it.

They haven't.

Okay.

I take the opportunity to say I'm not the biggest fan of their men's team because of.

Not because ever there's, you know, less skill, so to speak, but how sometimes they execute, they just seem to get carried away and they just seem to lose to their emotions, which is not.

Which doesn't seem to be the case with the women's team.

They've been a skillful B.

Very, very aware of what needs to happen when, like Shauna Akhtar's innings that the other day, she wasn't just whacking, you know, blindly.

She, she took her single, she was aware when to hit, where to hit.

That's why she played, could play that innings because she was accessing all the right spots.

So similarly, I think, look, Marufas bowling is just.

I think it's been the highlight of the tournament.

The amount of swings she got, she.

We had to chase 106 and we couldn't because he's unworldly, bowled a spell from the high heavens.

And you, you can't bowl that spell.

It's.

It's impossible.

And, and some of the players who batted in that Indian lineup, you like, those are surprising names to have not chased down 106.

So yeah, I think Marufakta's two balls that day, the first thought to a lot of us, you know, men's cricket fans, so to speak, was wow, this is straight up unworldly, dietary.

And she's been superb.

Rabbi Akhan has been superb.

So they, they've definitely been the most improved.

Or, or later.

So they had a climb to make and they've made the client.

Right.

They're great credit.

I think New Zealand.

Sorry, please go ahead.

No, no, go finish with that.

Finish with that.

I think New Zealand are coming to the end of a cycle.

What you see with New Zealand, an end of a team iteration.

And I think going forward, maybe next year's T20 World cup could be it for a couple of their players.

So you will see kind of a refresh.

New Zealand, England just have so many tools here.

I mean, I don't think we should have the Australia in this conversation, but England just have so many tools.

They have so many ways to, you know, proverbially skin the skin the cat.

So they're very, very well stacked.

I've liked what I've seen in South Africa.

I love Shabnam, so I'm missing her at this World cup.

But I, I've loved what I've seen in South Africa.

I have.

That century by Tasnim Brits was stunning.

So.

So yeah, I think this has been a tournament of superbly high skill and the, the kind of pitches has made it better because it's not like in the, you know, generally World Cups and major tournaments.

You've not got, you know, either your minefields or your wackathons.

You've got these 270, 250, 280 games, which are great watches.

And maybe the best pitch we saw was the Vizag game against between India and Australia where Healy at the toss said that, you know, it looks like a wonderful pitch and you know, it was it Healy, was it Hardman one of them, that it looks like a pitch, a lot of runs.

So barring that, I think most games have been in that range of 250, 280.

And those make for such good one.

ODI cricket.

Yeah.

So very.

It's been like from a spectator's perspective, it's been great to watch.

Absolutely.

And I'll, I'll speak a little more on South Africa.

It's, it's been a really good comeback for them considering the start, you know, 69 all out and then they've come back pretty strongly.

Nadine de Clark has now had two match winnings innings, one against India where honestly, unexpectedly, yes, it was, she was so good, but it was so unexpected considering, you know, she's not necessarily known for her six hitting and she hit five or six sixes.

That hangs.

And, and then she repeated those a couple of nights ago against Bangladesh to take them home again with I think a 3, 3 wicket win in the last over.

So, yeah, some really great performances.

Feels like, you know, I know there's always players who have talents, who've been around teams, but they're never the main star.

But it's been one of the situations where she's just, it's, it's.

She's made her, made it her World cup and you know, been center stage this time with some of the stars like Ismail being absent.

She was also in the reserves, if I'm not mistaken.

I don't think she played the World cup in 22.

She obviously has been playing ODI cricket from maybe just before that.

But if I remember correctly, she wasn't in the squad in 22.

She could have been in the reserves.

So that innings against India was outrageous, man.

I know that there was a due in by zag.

It was moist.

Yeah.

You know, there was precipitation.

India ran out of bowling options.

So, you know that over from Harman Prith wasn't obviously, you could say not well timed, but it had to come at some point.

She had to go there.

There was, there was no.

No where else to.

To go.

But I think her innings against Bangladesh obviously was a bit sketchy.

Great innings, but she, she gave her a chance against India.

She was flawless.

And it's like she walked in and she knew I got this and she just, you know, timed her hits to perfection.

I am waiting for a Laura Woolworth special because when she gets post the 30th over, she's a like, you sit back and watch that stuff.

She scored well.

She's obviously, she's been in good touch and Tasnim Brits has.

Could you imagine, I mean, a few years back somebody telling you that Meg Lanning's records for, for runs and everything will be broken And Tasnim Brits has broken that with I think most centuries.

So no, she's, she's been superb.

She's got what, five, six centuries this year.

And I think from again, England and Australia, you kind of are so familiar with what they bring and the skills they bring that you knew what an Alisa Healey could do.

Elise Perry is nothing new to anyone who watches women's cricket.

So I was almost, you know, keyed in on a Phoebe Lich field and they were warming up right in front of us and the.

There was a crack of the ball hitting her bat which just.

And she hit by mistake.

She hit one towards the Indian dugout and it went so quick that the crowd reacted as.

Oh, because they thought it might hit somebody.

So, no, it.

I mean, not just kill wise, but in terms of how complete the game seems now, as in the rough edges are tactical rough edges more than skilled rough edges.

You never.

I can't tell.

There have been too many people who have felt out of place.

And this is across the eight teams, not just the best teams, but across the 18.

I'm a huge fan of loopy leg spinners or loopy spinners.

So Nashra Sandhu, superb.

Great.

I was hoping Alana King bowled slowish in the India game, but I think just the pitch made it impossible for her to loop it up because it was a flattish page thing and openers had done well, so she had to kind of dart it in a bit, but yeah, otherwise it's been a superb World Cup.

Skill wise, these guys are clearly up their game and with the next iteration of WPL BBL100, we will, we will see like from all three aspects, be it bowling, fielding, actually four if you include tactics.

We'll see it reach a new level almost.

I'm expecting for the next ODI World cup, we'll see it get places that it isn't there yet.

Absolutely.

You know, recently I was reading that women's cricket is now a billion dollar industry and that's obviously a great thing and it's heading the right direction.

One spinner that you didn't mention that I do want to talk about is India's Shri Charnish, the 21 year old, an amazing job against the Australians.

I, I didn't get a chance to watch her in some of the previous games, but, but yeah, she was on the money.

She was bowling to the field and yeah, it felt like even Alisa Healey who was set and scoring at what, 115 strike rate.

I think she went under 90 strike rate against her.

So it was just very good tactical bowling, you know, good control and, and that was great to watch considering the Duke, considering the opponent and the situation.

I think for the Indian camp she looked the only one in complete control.

And this is not to kind of discredit the Indian bowlers.

It was tough to bowl.

You were bowling against absolute gun batting team that in a batting lineup that never ends, you were never getting a, a reprieve.

Like when Thalia Ellie's Perry went out, you know, Beth Mooney walked in and she got gets out that at some point Thalia McGrath walks in and Maghra comes in and she just starts hitting and she's.

Talia Magrath is physically like a, like massive.

And so it's already a very imposing frame in front of you and she just comes and she just starts hitting.

And by that time Alisa Haley's already reached 80, 90, whatever.

So it was a tough bowling conditions.

It was tough bowling conditions.

It was a very hard to beat batting lineup.

And Sri Charani was in complete control, if I may say so.

She was the only one who seemed to be in sync with the captain in terms of the field placement and the angles.

My biggest problem from the Australia game was between India and Australia was that there was no hold on what angles you bowled to one, a batter or a batting lineup or a batting, you know, group.

Because for the most part Australia just milked the chase.

And that's kind of a red flag because it's okay to lose.

It's absolutely all right, you're losing to the greatest team in your sport.

But just the ease which with Australia just went through that 330, that should raise a few alarms.

And it came down to them having singles available to them all the time.

And the boundaries were just pressure release shots.

And when you, and you.

There was no pressure built that, you know, they would feel compelled to hit a boundary.

They could just take a couple of overs, say, okay, when we get the loser ball wheel hit.

So Shri Charani, in that phase between, I think over 20 to 35, 36, between 17 to 35, 36, she was the only one who seemed to have the tempo under control, the fields under control.

And the Australians gave her a lot of respect.

They weren't trying to, you know, whack her out of the ground.

They were, they took a few singles and they, they moved on to the other bowlers, which is the biggest compliment you can get that in a 333, 30 game.

You went for, I think 50.

No, not even 50 actually.

I think it was like 42 or for three.

42 something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, outstanding bowling performance.

Yep, absolutely.

And talking about the Aussies, I, I really don't get it.

I don't.

Forget it.

Why, like the Australian just, you know, whether it's the men's or whether it's the women's, they just show up and they are just tactically ready.

They were ready for targeting specific players who were not boundary hitters to stay in longer, things like that.

And they are also similar, like in terms of tactics they bowled.

You mentioned a lot of teams are bowling on the stumps to the Indian openers, considering their strengths of, you know, freeing their arms, but they bowled a lot of slower balls.

And then even when we talk about, you know, the great ODI batters of the, let's say the last 15, 20 years, you will notice that their non boundary strike rates is always up there.

Even if they're not finding boundaries, they're finding singles, they're finding doubles, they're able to do that.

And that's exactly what Healy and company did against India.

Even when Charny was bowling that spell.

Apart from a Couple of overs 1 in Maiden.

I think they always found those singles and were able to rotate.

So yeah, just a team that is at another level.

I don't think it surprises anybody anymore.

I think it's.

If I was an Aussie fan I would be like, this is boring.

You guys just went too easy every time.

But do you think they have.

There's.

I guess what, who can challenge the Aussies?

Let me put it this way.

So about Aussie fans, let me get there.

Who can challenge you?

It's a tougher one because how do you logically.

How do you logically argue against team that's now 169 out of the last 76 ODIs right across eight years?

How do you logically make a case that they will lose a game?

But in terms of the fans, there were a couple of travelers from Australia, I think one was from Brisbane who's been watching like, who kind of watched cricket with.

When Belinda Clerk was there and Brenda Clark was there and everyone.

And the other one is fairly newer, but she was also I think similar age group.

So they were sitting and behind us and through the India innings as the, you know, Indian total kept getting higher, kept getting higher.

At no point were they even, you know, panicking.

And I kind of just turned around, I was like, what do you think this is?

This is usually a high territory of this cause.

And their response, part sledge, I guess it was part confidence, was that, you know, if, if the girls in blue are getting this, the girls in yellow are definitely going to get this.

Okay, I can't argue against that.

So I think something with Australian cricket that we don't recognize enough and that's partly due to, you know, the way we are conditioned to see sport is that in a high performance team, be it men's beat women, when you think of the great teams, you think of these, you know, superstars who, you know, who are, you know, to use a metaphor, born right and burn long and whatever the Australian cricket in, in both genders, they have had a team full of just high performance, 7 on 10, 8 on 10 everyday performers and a couple of these explosives, guns, you know, for example, something that come in said about Maxwell and I read that in the forward for Maxwell's autobiography is that regardless of how Maxwell performs on a day to day basis, they're happy to carry Maxwell because the rest of the team is our percentage players.

They will play the percentages.

They will they and that's how they are good at that's what they're good at.

And even a David Warner, when the big tournament comes, he's not lashing out blindly.

He knows the tight tree, he knows where to go.

So they don't do, they don't do mercurial.

Australia doesn't do mercurial at all.

They do consistency and you know at some point that one of them is going to lock in.

You know, Healey was speaking about that, that, you know, there's been a lot made of, you know, me not locking in.

And I guess I was just a little more locked in this time.

So Perry went off, Elise Perry went off with Grams.

She came back and at no point did she look like, okay, now a couple of wickets have fallen.

Alisa is gone.

The said batter is gone.

I'm almost, you know, after hour break, I'm coming back to the crease.

How do I navigate this?

She just kept picking a singles hit the odd boundary.

So they got such a good idea about their game and, you know, everything adjacent to the technical skills, whether it be, like you said, the tactical skills, whether it be mentally just knowing, okay, we have encountered the situations enough to know exactly how to go, when to press the pedal, when to not press the pedal.

There was a phase in the Indian innings where they were not necessarily going for the high heavens versus Atalia.

Magra came and clearly came with instructions from the dressing room that heave.

You score 10 balls, 20, we're good, just heave.

So she heaved at pretty much everything and that felt like a very planned kind of, you know, a strategy.

But even previously, it's not like they were.

Their win percentage has never been kind of less than 75, 80, which in, in any sport, it's quite wild for.

For long periods you can have one seasons like the Chicago Chicago Bull six season that, you know, is an outstanding season or the closest that comes to it is Barca Femini, who went four or five seasons of the Spanish Women's Premier League and they lost I think three games or four games in four seasons.

There were a couple of seasons where they won 30 out of 30 games.

So barring that, I can't think of too many teams who had this kind of dominance.

And what that kind of dominance brings is not just your best players playing well, but your support cast playing well, there are, there are players who raise their hands up.

And out comes Andrew Simons with a one generational 150.

In that World cup twice there were seven down and Andy Bickle had rescued them with the bat.

In this World Cup, Pakistan had them seven down, who scores a 50?

Alana King at number 10 from number 10.

And that's not just, you know, a crazy thing.

That's the sign of a team at the absolute ceiling of what high performance should be where not just your, you know, Perry and Healy and your, you know, the Beth Mooney's are scoring 100.

Your Ashley Gardner chips in with a century.

Your Ravana King chips in the 50.

Everyone can bat.

Everyone can bat.

Everyone can bowl.

There are seven, eight bowling options.

There are your battle 10.

So it's a team that is just, it's a pleasure to watch them here.

I don't know how, how else to say.

There is absolutely, and I'm very glad for it, that even within the fans there was no sort of animosity or, you know, that kind of, that kind of anger you have towards a team that keeps beating you.

There was a lot of reverence, a lot of respect that how can you be so good?

How can you be so complete that, you know, seven down, eight down, doesn't matter, you got this.

And it, it reflected during the chase that they were never in trouble.

They were never in under pressure.

Forget trouble, they were never under pressure.

They just, they had it under control.

They're like, okay, we got this, no worries.

Yeah, it's, it's very interesting.

I mean, I completely agree with everything you said about the Aussies and obviously it comes from multiple angles, right?

One is of course one of the first teams to professionalize.

So that gave the women a lot of, you know, money, support systems.

All of that grounds all of that to, to upskill.

But, but the other aspect of it is, you know, just sometimes we have these, you know, a number of top players come together at the same time and suddenly a strong team comes together.

Those, those things happen naturally.

So all of that has happened.

But at the same time, the one other thing, and I've never been to Australia, by the way, but what I've heard from people who've, who lived there or who've been there is it's a very much a sporting culture.

Every person is pushed to play a couple of sports at the very least.

And that I think is such a big difference because, you know, you talked about they weren't going for every ball at certain stages of their innings.

And that is a lot about match awareness.

And I think that is something that comes from being a sporting culture.

When you're, you've watched the game, when you've analyzed the game, when you've talked the game all the time from, from your childhood, you have that understanding at a much earlier stage, of course, executing it.

And all of that is a completely different, you know, completely different challenge.

But having that awareness puts you so much ahead of, you know, somebody else at, at a similar age group or someone, someone else from a different country.

So I, I collected.

It's.

Sorry, it's, it's very collective, like Australia is, and I would say Australia and South Africa almost uniquely and obviously New Zealand.

But amongst the elite teams in men and women's cricket, the, the, the, the effort always seems to be towards the collective goal.

And I can't remember too many Australian or South African players who have come across as, you know, almost a bubble, even as great as they have been, you know, almost a bubble that exists by themselves.

And sometimes, you know, the team has to work around them.

It, it never is that way.

It's always, even the best players kind of work around what the team tactics are, what the team goals are.

Opening bowlers, fast bowlers will bowl, third change, fourth change, no worries.

Batters will change their batting lineups and batting favorite batting spots.

No worries.

Stroke makers will give up their stroke making to become these solid middle order batters.

You've seen that so much in, you know, men's cricket, women's cricket.

Alisa Haley is a reformed opener.

She was not opening.

I think she was put back to open.

Do you want to open?

Because we have ample middle order options.

She's like, why not?

Let's do it.

So I think that is a part of the Australian culture that you always, and I heard this, I don't know how much of that is true.

Maybe your, you know, audience from Australia can help us understand if there is accuracy to this, is that when a kid in Australia plays a game, and it could be any sport, they come home, the first question asked is, did you, did you win?

And as you grow older, in that atmosphere, that's almost your instinct to think that win comes first, my score comes second.

And that's not to say that the other countries are more selfish.

What I'm trying to say is the lens through which we use sport is almost like the collective first, everything else later.

And which is why probably Australia is the only country from where we've seen, you know, senior players drop themselves.

I think Clark being an example, pointing, saying that okay, maybe it's time to go well before he retired.

So and you see and they're able to drop players based on situations.

They're able to play horses for courses at all points.

That's something that we see always with Australian cricket teams that they.

There are phases when maybe a good team doesn't.

Is not always very good, but you always see that their team is exactly what it should be for the situation.

And that comes from a very objective collective view of their culture.

Really well summed up.

Sardak, we want to thank you for your time.

It's been a pleasure chatting with you.

I do come back to the last wicket.

I'm sure we'll find a number of different topics to chat.

Just say the word, I'll be here.

Perfect.

To our listeners, we'll share Sarthak's credentials and his blog is amazing blog, which I really do enjoy, as well as his Twitter account.

With that, we'll be back soon.

Thank you.

Thank you.