Smriti Mandhana Takes Blame For India’s Defeat Against England: ‘Could Have Done Better With…’ | Cricket News

Smriti Mandhana top-scored for India in the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup 2025 match against England on Sunday (October 19) in Indore. (Picture Credit: AP)

India faced England in their fifth league match of the ongoing ICC Women’s ODI World Cup 2025 on Sunday (October 19) in Indore but suffered a heartbreaking defeat by four runs. India could only manage to score 284/6 in 50 overs in response to the 288 runs posted by the Nat Sciver-Brunt-led side. Opener Smriti Mandhana top-scored for the Women in Blue in the 289-run chase by hammering 88 runs from 94 balls, and captain Harmanpreet Kaur added 70 runs from as many balls to India’s total. All-rounder Deepti Sharma also scored 50 runs from 57 balls, but India still failed to chase down the record total.

After India suffered another defeat in the ongoing eight-team tournament, which has now also put their chances of qualification for the semifinals in danger, Mandhana attended the post-match press conference, and during her interaction with the reporters, she refused to talk about her innings by saying that it doesn’t mean anything because India lost the match.

“I wouldn’t really want to talk about my innings because it doesn’t mean anything because we lost,” Mandhana said.

In the match where India needed 62 runs in the last 10 overs with seven wickets in hand, the hosts suffered a collapse, and it all started from Mandhana’s wicket. On the second ball of the 42nd over, the left-handed batter attempted to play a big shot down the ground off Linsey Smith’s bowling, but she failed to clear the ropes and was caught by Alice Capsey.

According to Mandhana, her teammates could have done better with the shot selection, and she took the blame for the defeat by saying that the collapse started from her wicket.

“Our batting collapsed; everyone saw that. I think our shot selections at that time… we could have done better with our shot selections. Especially it started from me, so I will take it on me that the shot selection should have been better. We just needed six runs per over. We should have maybe taken the game deeper. So yeah, I will take it from myself, because the collapse started from me,” she added.

India will next face New Zealand, and the match between India and New Zealand in Navi Mumbai on October 23 will be a virtual quarterfinal. The winner of that contest will book their place in the semifinal.