Hamilton: The Indian team once again bore the brunt of poor batting as New Zealand thrashed them by 62 runs in the second league match of the ICC Women’s World Cup on Thursday. New Zealand, which defeated India in a bilateral series just before the World Cup, maintained that momentum with 260 for nine. After this, the Indian team was dismissed for 198 runs in 46.4 overs.
India has now slipped to fifth place out of eight teams while New Zealand is at second place after Australia. For India, Pooja Vastrakar took 4 for 34 in 10 overs and Harmanpreet Kaur made 71 runs in 62 balls but none of the other players could perform significantly. If Vastrakar stopped New Zealand from going close to 300, Harmanpreet will be helped by this innings to recover the lost confidence. For New Zealand, Amelia Kerr first scored 50 runs in an all-rounder performance and later took three wickets for 56 runs in nine overs.
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He also took the crucial wicket of Indian captain Mithali Raj, who was dismissed for 31 in 56 balls. Along with this, he sent Richa Ghosh (0) to the pavilion on a quick googly. Harmanpreet became his third victim. Fast bowler Lee Tahuhu took 3 for 17 in 10 overs and Haley Jensen took 3 for 30 in 6.4 overs. Chasing a target of 261 runs to win, India got off to a poor start. Smriti Mandhana got out after scoring six runs in 21 balls. Yastika Bhatia (28 runs in 59 balls) and Deepti Sharma (five runs in 13 balls) also could not survive.
Mithali once again failed to play any memorable innings in her last World Cup. Simultaneously, coach Ramesh Pawar’s strategy of fielding three batsmen was also incomprehensible while New Zealand captain Sophie Devine was handing the new ball to off break bowler Francis McKay. Shefali Verma, who was in poor form, was dropped. McKay bowled 27 dot balls in the first 15 overs, stopping the flow of runs.
The Indian team has lost five out of six ODIs to New Zealand in the last one month. Batting first, New Zealand scored 117 runs for the loss of two wickets in the first 20 overs, while India scored 50 runs for the loss of three wickets in 20 overs. It was the difference of 67 runs which decided the direction of the match. Amy Satterthwaite scored 75 runs and captain Devine scored 35 runs for New Zealand. (agency)