How far are India from their A game before their crunch clash against favourites Australia on Sunday? It's hard to answer that question in a quantitative way, but such is a sportsperson's resilience and belief that India allrounder Radha Yadav interrupted the above question at the post-match press conference by questioning the use of the word "door (far)" in it. It forced the journalist in question - the author of this article - to use the word "paas (close)" instead, leading to a burst of laughter at Old Trafford.
India's bumpy five-wicket victory over Bangladesh was far from the kind of margin or the comprehensive show they would have wanted to put up against a side that's not among the semi-final favourites, before clashing against Australia, a team that has made a habit of lifting World Cup trophies almost every time they play for one. Such was India's error-strewn day in Manchester that they will leave for London with the thought: how do they lift themselves in every aspect of the game within a matter of 72 hours?
Radha was playing her first game of this T20 World Cup on Thursday although it was in the previous match, against South Africa, that while fielding as a substitute for Yastika Bhatia she handed the eventual match-winner Marizanne Kapp two lives, on 25 and 65. Against Bangladesh, she came in for Prema Rawat and despite being among the best fielders in the side, put down a straightforward catch early on, of Juairiya Ferdous on 9. Even as Radha rued the chance gone by with pursed lips and a grimace at the boundary, she would have hardly expected Nandani Sharma to drop another two catches within the next three balls.
"I think it was just a bad day for me," Radha said at the press conference. "I don't have to say [much] about my fielding, I've done that in the past; I've taken some brilliant catches as well so I have nothing to worry about, it's just a bad day."
Even though India would have wanted to iron out the kinks in the fielding department after the tense loss to South Africa, they have ended up dropping the joint second-most catches (10) this tournament (as per Cricinfo's logs), level with England, only behind New Zealand's 12. It's not just the aspects of runs scored or wickets taken where India have been unable to match teams like South Africa and Australia so far, but also the catching where their drops are far more than Australia's three or South Africa's four. It won't help India's confidence at all that they also misfielded several times which allowed Bangladesh some extra runs.
"Fielding is something we do with great enthusiasm," Radha said. "You will always see it in our fielding sessions -- hopefully you have seen our fielding session - if you look you'll see we don't leave a single catch in it. It's very rare, maybe in extremely tough cases, but fielding is something we've worked on for two-three years. I think it's not really an excuse but it was a bit difficult because of the sun; it was very difficult for those fielding on this side (where she dropped Ferdous' catch).
"So it happens, sometimes conditions also matter and how you are feeling that day. Everyone is working hard. No one is just showing up on the ground. Everyone genuinely ticks all the boxes. That's always been our mantra: fitness, bowling, batting, fielding. We do all those things. But sometimes there's a day when it just doesn't happen. So you can only learn from it and nothing else you can do. Breaking your head over it won't help."
To add to India's pressure, they are in a must-win situation - unless Bangladesh topple South Africa - against the most feared side in the world. And they would have watched South Africa take down Netherlands a lot more comprehensively later on Thursday, with a total of 208 that helped them secure an 88-run victory, their second-biggest in T20 World Cups.
"So after the South Africa game, we had a team huddle," Radha said. "We spoke that this is not something new for us [being in must-win territory]. We have done it before also. So we just told each other to keep smiling. You all are doing your work and you can't do more than that. There is only one thing you can do: help each other, keep each other's spirits up, keep each other calm, because it's such a high-pressure game, especially for India - obviously there are so many expectations from everyone - so nothing else, just smile and enjoy. That's what we spoke about, nothing else, because everyone has performed, everyone knows their game, anyone can pull the match out of any situation, so there's no doubt about anyone. So you can only back each other and nothing else."
When India turned up for their training session the day after the loss to South Africa, the team management decided to have some fun and keep things lighthearted instead of focusing on skills once again. The bowlers were thrown the challenge of bowling a yorker and a slower bowl in three attempts, the batters had to hit one six in three balls they faced and for fielding they had to get a direct hit from the short distance while their team-mates rooted from right behind them with a crescendo of cheers.
The next day the entire squad was back to business and started with intense fielding sessions under the scorching sun, both for the 30-yard specialists and the boundary riders, before moving to the nets on the side of the ground for long sessions with the bat and ball. It may not have reflected in India's outing against Bangladesh as apart from the fielding lapses, India also saw several erroneous moments while batting.
Shafali Verma got a life on 4 in the first over of the chase before she went on to smash another 49 runs, Yastika Bhatia got one on 14 just before the halfway mark and there was a streak of run-out chances towards the end of the chase. The one India would have lamented the most was when Jemimah Rodrigues nearly ran all the way up the pitch to come almost face to face with Harmanpreet Kaur, who got back in her crease after tucking the ball to the leg side but Nahida Akter couldn't collect the throw at the bowler's end, which allowed Rodrigues to return just in time. In the two other chances that followed, Harmanpreet took off for risky singles and offered her wicket but Bangladesh couldn't nail the direct hits.
While teams are expected to get better with every passing game or day in World Cups, India are somehow moving in all other directions but that one.
"I can talk only about the effort; the performance and results, no one can decide," Radha said. "As for effort, I'll give everyone 200% credit, because no one is just sitting around or saying they won't do it or will take a day off. No, people are practicing ruthlessly. And no one has to be told to practice, because everyone knows how important the game is and how much they have to stick together and how to ease each other's pressure a little, remove it. So there's more focus on that, and the rest are doing their work."
With one round of matches to go, the one thing that is still in India's favour is the massive difference in their net run-rate (2.2268) and South Africa's (0.734). So even if South Africa hammer Bangladesh with a margin similar to how they took down Netherlands, India need not worry about how commanding or slim their win should be against Australia, until they get those two points at Lord's.
But how far - or close - are India from such a show that will bring down Australia? Only Sunday will tell.