Women’s WC: Struggling Indian women take on in-form Windies
Hamilton: India”s under-performing top-order will be keen to display way more intent to bring the team”s campaign back on track when it squares off against a dangerous West Indies in the third league game of the ICC Women”s World Cup here on Saturday. Currently placed fifth after a demoralising 62-run loss to New Zealand, India […]
Hamilton: India”s under-performing top-order will be keen to display way more intent to bring the team”s campaign back on track when it squares off against a dangerous West Indies in the third league game of the ICC Women”s World Cup here on Saturday.
Currently placed fifth after a demoralising 62-run loss to New Zealand, India would like to get back to winning ways as back-to-back defeat can cause loss in momentum, especially when they are playing one game after another on the bounce.
The likes of Smriti Mandhana, Mithali Raj, the young Yastika Bhatia and all-rounder Deepti Sharma were all criticised for not getting a move-on against New Zealand in India”s chase of 261 and despite Harmanpreet Kaur”s 62-ball-71, the team ended up being outplayed by 62 runs. It is understood that Shafali Verma, despite her ”blow hot, blow cold” form, will be back in the playing eleven, and would be expected to lend pace to innings, something which Yastika Bhatia failed to do in the previous game.
The Indian batters played out an inexplicable 162 dot balls, equivalent to 27 overs, in the last game against White Ferns and the match was as good as over when they scored only 50 off the first 20 overs.
Mithali, playing her last tournament, has been in very poor form and even Mandhana has looked scratchy putting a lot of pressure on the likes of Pooja Vastrakar and Sneh Rana. One of the poor calls by Neetu David-led selection committee has been non-inclusion of opening batter S Meghana, who showed a lot of spark in her comeback ODI series against New Zealand. She was middling the ball well and unfortunately didn”t make the cut in the World Cup squad, which was picked much earlier.
For West Indies, it has been a good start to the tournament and skipper Taylor would want one more inspirational performance from her band of women, who defended a mediocre total of 225 against defending champions England in the last game. Taylor”s biggest advantage is her multiple bowling options and she was able to use as many as eight bowlers in the last game against England.
While Dottin”s airborne catch to dismiss Lauren Winfield-Hill was the highlight of the Windies” show against England, what would make Indians wary is the fact that the Caribbeans have successfully defended twice in two games against the White Ferns and England.
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