Women's World T20: Australia wins trophy that had India's name written on it

The Australian women's cricket team once again climbed to the zenith of world cricket on Sunday as they beat arch-rivals England in the final of the Women's World T20 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua.

But even as the dust settles, for the Indian fan there seems to remain a lingering feeling of what could have been.

The Indian team was playing like a dream in the group stages. No team got close to them, let alone give them a fight. Not even the world champions, the mighty Aussies – not even.

India steamrolled New Zealand in the first match after skipper Harmanpreet Kaur set the tournament alight with a powerful exhibition of leather whacking. The spinners then choked the Kiwi chase led by the Yadav amiga – Poonam and Radha.

India then turned their attention to Pakistan and swept them away, this time courtesy Mithali Raj's maturity in a tricky run chase that was set up by the brilliance of the slow bowlers.

By the time India was done with Ireland, there was a growing sense of belief that this World Cup was becoming India's raj lead by Mithali Raj as she once again scored a match-winning fifty before the spinners, like clockwork, choked the Irish challenge.

Next came Australia. India's biggest challenge yet. Raj, slightly injured, sat out with the semi-final beckoning. The management was wiser than to take a risk with their most prized possession – a once in a lifetime cricketer.

But Raj's absence seemed no problem as Smriti Mandhana rose and took flight to pose an imposing target for the pre-tournament favourites. Then once again, with the assurance of sunrise and sunset, the spinners took over and artfully pinned Australia into submission.

Batting with intent and scoring quickly; bowling with poise and spinning a web - the dichotomy of the brisk and the slow dished out by India had outclassed every opposition.

It seemed as though an unstoppable force had readied itself to launch.

With an inconsistent England awaiting table toppers India in the semi-final, the launch simply did not come.

Inexplicable as stupefying, the semi-final had more stories off the pitch than on it. India dropped their best batsman Raj for the game even though she had recovered from injury and the batting, not used to the pressure on a tricky wicket, collapsed; and so did India's hopes.

If dropping Raj was a blunder, batting first after winning the toss was suicide. In the tournament and off late, India has been a spin only line up and went into the match with 4 spinners. Thus, with heavy dew expected in the second innings, India's decision to bat first was as good as submitting the match before even taking guard.

England, almost in disbelief, rolled India over and then got rolled over by Australia.

The women who were left clueless by India stood with the World Cup aloft, leaving the Indian public clueless as to what went wrong.

Seemingly, plenty did. At least that is what Mithali Raj's manager publicly believes.

The unstoppable force of India had met an immovable object and that object – an opposition – sadly, was not from the opposition.