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‘Nobody from the first day thought we would be a finalist’
India exceeded expectations by reaching the ICC Women's World Cup final but there is still scope for performing better as a team, feels veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami.
Under the heartbreak of a final defeat at the hands of England, Goswami was able to reflect on one of the biggest moments in India women's cricket history.
India was the only team to beat England en-route to its third title in three attempts at home, but while the individual performances were there, the task is now to follow it up with more and more team displays heading into future tournaments.
"The important thing is that nobody from the first day thought we would be a finalist. We performed and started to believe in ourselves after that match, and in each given day everybody tried to contribute, as a team we believed that if we did well we could do it our way," said Goswami, who took three crucial wickets in the final.
"We tried to contribute from all of us from the beginning. At this moment we must enjoy this journey, the whole team must enjoy the way we played, unfortunately this one was not to go our way.
"In the games we've had people perform, individually, but when it comes to a group there are things that we can work on," said the all-time leading wicket-taker in ODIs with 195 scalps.
Her Lord's outing also took her to tally to 36 wickets in World Cups – the joint third highest – while her three for 23 threatened to take the game away from the host and favourite England when they made 228 for eight.
In the end, it proved just a shade too much of a tally to chase, though it didn't stop her boasting a plethora of memories from her second, match-changing spell in front of 25,000 fans.
"We didn't get any early breakthrough and there wasn't much pace in the wicket, so for me it was about bowling a tight line and length. I tried to bowl in the right areas and not give them much room, they were using the crease and shuffling towards off stump, so we wanted to try and get them to play straight.
"Sometimes plans work, sometimes they don't, but they came at the right time to break that partnership. Whenever a team requires it, I try to contribute from my side – my best bowling figures are the ones where England win the match," she added.