Deepti Sharma plays down India's dropped catches before the Asia Cup final
India put down four chances in the semifinal against Bangladesh and still won by 40 runs. The all-rounder says the team is ready in all three departments.
India's all-rounder Deepti Sharma has brushed aside concerns about the team's fielding after a semifinal in which four catches went down, saying dropped chances are part of the game and the side is ready for the Asia Cup final in all three departments.
India have won every match in the tournament so far. The catching, a long-standing weakness, has persisted through it.
What happened against Bangladesh
India put down as many as four chances in the 40-run semifinal win in Dubai on Thursday.
The lapses came in a cluster. In the very first over of the chase, Pratika Rawal dropped an overhead catch, and put down another later. Smriti Mandhana misjudged a catch on the boundary. Richa Ghosh and Nandani Sharma collided going for one near square leg.
Four in an innings is not a run of bad luck so much as a pattern, and it is one that has followed this side for some time.
Deepti's answer
Asked about it after the match, Deepti pointed to the work rather than the result.
"As a team in fielding, we have been doing good," she said. "We are doing practice sessions taking, you know, a number of catches as well as fielding also."
"I think that it will be a day here or a day there, it happens," she added. "But we are always up for the finals as a team in all three departments."
It is the standard answer from inside a dressing room that does not want a technical problem becoming a psychological one before a final. Whether it holds depends on what happens in the next match.
Her own contribution
Deepti's own performance was not in question. She scored a six-ball 13 and took 3 for 26 against Bangladesh — another all-round return in a tournament where she has repeatedly produced them.
She described the batting as the part she is glad to get. "Whenever I get an opportunity in batting, I always trust that I can contribute in batting also," she said. "So I'm glad few balls I got to hit today."
"It always gives me confidence. Either bowling first or batting first doesn't matter to me, but I always contribute as an all-rounder for the team," she said.
That flexibility is the reason she bats where she does and bowls when she does. In a side whose fielding has wobbled, an all-rounder returning three wickets and a cameo is the kind of performance that covers for it.
The final, and the opponent
At the time Deepti spoke, India's opponent had not been decided. The second semifinal, between Pakistan and defending champions Sri Lanka, was to be played later that night.
She said the team would plan afterwards. "After this game, we'll sit together tomorrow and that will help us to do more strategy towards the finals."
Asked which side she would prefer to face, she declined the invitation. "Actually, it depends on their result," she said.
"Our team doesn't take any team lightly," she said. "Doesn't matter, like maybe Sri Lanka, Pakistan, whoever comes in the final." She added: "We always think as a team how we can do better in each and every game."
Why the fielding matters in a final
India's route through the tournament has been comfortable enough that four dropped catches cost them nothing. A final is a different proposition, particularly against a defending champion.
Catching is the one discipline in cricket where a single error is unrecoverable: a dropped batter can go on to make the difference in the match, and no amount of good bowling afterwards undoes it. A side that drops four in a semifinal and wins by 40 runs has been given a margin it cannot count on again.
The counter-argument is the one Deepti made — that the team has been practising, that the semifinal was an outlier, and that the batting and bowling have been good enough to win every match played.
India were seeking a tenth Asia Cup final appearance when they beat Bangladesh. The report was carried by Hindustan Times from an automated news agency feed.
