India who had qualified for the knock out in 2009 and 2010 ICC World T20, again failed to qualify for the knock-outs in the 2016 World Cup. They have failed in the previous two editions too. India started their campaign in 2016 with a thumping win against Bangladesh.
However, their winning streak ended in the very next match when they lost to Pakistan by two runs in a rain-affected match. It was Pakistan’s second consecutive victory against India in World T20, a thing which their men’s team have failed to achieve, even once. England handed India their next defeat in a close encounter which England won by 2 wickets with an over to remain.
In their next match, India faced West Indies which turned out to be a virtual quarterfinal. Mithali Raj on the toss and decided to field first at Mohali on the 27th of March. West Indies was reduced to 26/3 after the end of the 7th over. But two seasoned campaigner Stafanie Taylor (47) and Deandra Dottin (45) added 77 runs for the 4th wicket which helped them to reach a total of 114 in their allotted overs.
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Chasing 115, India lost Mithali Raj in the very first ball and lost their top four batters including Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur within 13 overs. Smriti was sent back by Afy Fletcher and India still required 53 runs in 46 balls with 6 wickets in hand. Jhulan Goswami and Anuja Patil added 31 runs in 32 balls and Jhulan Goswami added another 11 runs from the next 6 balls including a six.
When it seemed that India was on the verge to make it to the semi-final, Jhulan Goswami was run out after a mix up with Shikha Pandey. India failed to make 11 runs in 8 balls and lost the match by 5 runs. Deandra Dottin was declared as the Player of the Match for her all-round show. After her 45 with the bat, she picked up 3 wickets, giving only 16 runs as well.
After this victory, England and West Indies went through to the semi-final and later West Indies won their maiden T20 title, after beating Australia in iconic Eden Gardens.
After this campaign, Mithali Raj made space for Harmanpreet Kaur to take over the captaincy of the T20 side and India made better performances in the next two editions of the World Cup. India qualified for the Semifinal in 2018 where they lost to England by 8 wickets and in the 2020 World Cup, India lost the final to Australia by 85 runs.
