India should have made the semis with the kind of talent in the team: Mamatha Maben

As Mignon du Preez whipped Deepti Sharma on the last ball of a thrilling match at Hagley Oval on Sunday to take South Africa home, it marked the end of India's dream to enter the semifinals of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup. It was a heartbreaking end to a campaign where India oscillated from being great on one day to going listless on the very next day.

Former India skipper Mamatha Maben feels the Mithali Raj-led side should have made the cut for the semifinals of the World Cup based on the talent in the team. "So close yet so far; basically, that's the thing. However, if you have to look at it from a deeper perspective, we had all the ingredients and kind of skill-sets required in a team to at least make it to the finals. But I think we have fallen short. Let me put it this way, we had the personnel with the required skill-sets and had talent in stock.

In India's up-and-down campaign in the World Cup, one thing which Maben believes the Mithali Raj-led side lacked was having a settled combination. Despite playing a five-match ODI series against hosts New Zealand followed by two official warm-up matches as preparation for the World Cup, India came across as a team which was still trying to figure out what their best eleven was.

"What was stark was that we never had a settled combination, be it batting or bowling. When you head to a big tournament like the World Cup, 90 per cent of your core is set. One or two (changes), that happens based on form or injury. But from game one, we never had a set kind of an eleven or batting order.

"I feel this is one area where we need to look at and it is the one where we should have done better: to have a more settled eleven and batting order, especially. It could have probably helped us a lot. There are positives in lots of young and bright talent but we need all to fire together. For that to happen, we need a proper and settled (unit)."