ICC Women's World Cup: Lacklustre India surrender to New Zealand by 62 runs

PTI

Hamilton, March 10

An inept batting performance by India led to an all-too-familiar surrender to New Zealand as the Mithali Raj-led side went down by 62 runs in their second league stage match of the ICC Women's World Cup here today.

New Zealand, who have dominated the Indians throughout this summer, made sure the script didn’t get overwritten by first scoring a healthy 260/9 and then bowling India out for only 198 in 46.4 overs.

India have now slipped to fifth among the eight teams after this defeat while New Zealand, with two wins from three games, are second behind Australia in the overall standings.

Pooja Vastrakar's 4/34 in 10 overs and Harmanpreet Kaur's 71 off 62 balls were the only performances to cheer about but that hardly impacted the outcome.

While Vastrakar's four-for could still be credited for stopping New Zealand's total from going above 280, Kaur’s runs might just help her regain her confidence for the upcoming games.

Amelia Kerr (50 and 3/56), one half of the famous Kerr sisters, first laid the platform with a solid half-century and then breached the defences of her rival skipper Raj (31 off 56 balls) with a flighted delivery. Her fast googly dismissed Richa Ghosh (0) off the next delivery to make it virtually impossible for India.

Towards the end, she also snapped up Kaur to make it a perfect all-round performance. Seamers Lea Tahuhu (3/17) and Hayley Jensen (3/30) shared the other scalps.

The pursuit of 261 started on a discordant note with Smriti Mandhana (6 off 21 balls), Yastika Bhatia (28 off 59 balls) and Deepti Sharma (5 off 13 balls) unable to find ways to rotate the strike.

Raj's struggles have been well-documented and it's not getting any better in her last tournament.

Even more baffling was coach Ramesh Powar's strategy of including three left-handers, while the out-of-form Shafali Verma was dropped. Home team skipper Sophie Devine gave the new ball to off-break bowler Frances Mackay (8-1-25-0), who made things difficult for the left-handers by turning the ball away from them.

Mackay’s figures don't seem exceptional but much like what Deepak Patel did for New Zealand’s men's team in 1992, Mackay bowled as many as 27 dot balls in those first 15 overs to choke the flow of runs. India haven't found a way to counter New Zealand and in the past one month, they have lost five out of six ODIs against the White Ferns.

For skipper Devine, it was a "complete performance". "Really complete performance. We built partnerships throughout, (Amy) Satterthwaite was outstanding, we laid the platform and we knew it was a good score," Devine said.

Brief scores: NZ: 260/9 (Satterthwaite 75; Vastrakar 434); India: 198 (Kaur 71; Tahuhu 3/17). — PTI

Mithali rues batting

Hamilton: Captain Mithali Raj had no hesitation in admitting that top-order's performance hasn't been up to the mark as India didn't have "a batter to take the game deep" in their 62-run defeat. India managed only 198 in a chase of 260 after only 50 runs were scored off 20 overs. "Our batting, especially the top and middle-order needs to fire because other teams are posting 250-260," Raj said at the post-match presentation ceremony. "We thought it was chaseable but provided we had the top-order going. But back-to-back wickets put a lot of pressure because we didn't have batter who can take it deep.”

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