ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup: India must bat away blues against West Indies

Hamilton, March 11

India’s underperforming top-order will be keen to display more intent to bring the team’s campaign back on track when they square off against a dangerous West Indies in their third league game of the ICC Women’s World Cup here tomorrow.

Currently placed fifth after a demoralising 62-run loss to New Zealand, India’s chances of making it to the knockout stage cannot be further compromised.

The likes of Smriti Mandhana, Mithali Raj, 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 XI, and would be expected to lend pace to the innings, something which Bhatia failed to do in the previous game. The Indian batters played out an inexplicable 162 dot balls, equivalent to 27 overs, against New Zealand and the match was as good as over when they had scored only 50 off the first 20 overs.

Head coach Ramesh Powar was very blunt and critical of the team’s show on the eve of the game against West Indies, who possess the likes of Stafanie Taylor, Deandra Dottin and Anisa Mohammed. “I think it was one of those days where things didn’t go our way and honestly I was also surprised with the way we batted for 20 overs,” Powar said.

Mithali, playing her last tournament, has been in poor form and even Mandhana has looked scratchy, putting a lot of pressure on the likes of Pooja Vastrakar and Sneh Rana. —