Austalia vs India icc women's cricket Team worldcup •mithali raj
In need of a perfect game
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| Mithali raj newsflixall.com |
Having put up an "up and down"
show so far, India will need to
play a perfect game against the mighty Australians in the Women's World Cup here on Saturday if they want to bring their campaign back on track.
In the preceding series against New Zealand, Indian bowlers struggled to find rhythm but in the World Cup, the batting performance has been inconsistent with the team sitting at two wins and as many losses after four games.
With three league games remaining, India must gain consistency in all departments and maintain their place in the top four to qualify for the semifinals. With four wins out of four games, Australia have looked unstoppable but if there is one team that can halt their juggernaut, it is India.
The Mithali Raj-led squad lost a closely contested series in Australia last year and ended Meg Lanning's team's 26-match winning streak.
Indian batters have come up with special individual performances but not fired as a group.
Mithali and all-rounder Deepti Sharma have exchanged places at number three in the first four games but both are yet to make notable contributions.
Smriti has shown top form and Harmanpreet being back among runs gives a massive boost to the team.
Smriti and Harmanpreet smashed centuries against the West Indies and shared a match-wining partnership. Former India captain Diana Edulji is of the opinion that now that Harmanpreet is back in form, ovon bisor toddison she should bat higher than her current number five position.
More changes could be on the cards in the batting order for the Australia game as the earlier experiments have not yielded the desired results.
Veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami, who will be playing her 200th ODI, has made an impact in all the games so far
and will be expected to provide the toearly breakthroughs against the for midable Australians.
Left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad has been the leading wicket-taker for India with eight wickets.
India managed only 134 in the last game but the bowlers still managed to stretch the game and got six English batters out. They will have to find a way to dismiss in-form opener Rachael Haynes who has amassed 277 runs at an average of 92.
Squads.
Australia: Meg Lanning (C), Rachael Haynes (vo), Darcie Brown, Nic Carey, Ash Gardner
Grace Harris, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen. Alana King, Tahlia McGrath, beur Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt. Annabel Sutherland, Amanda-JadeWellington
INDIA:
Mithali Raj (C), Harmanpreet Kaur (Vc). Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav.
Match starts 6.30 am IST
Austalia vs India
Did you know? (Head-to-Head):
Australia's Beth Mooney
needs one match to tally ODIS In WWC
50 ODIs in her career and Matches: 49 Matches: 12
she is one catch shy of Australia: 39 Australia: 9 India: 10
totalling 50 catches across India: 3
formats.
Numbers Game.
1NO
No. Of matches Jhulan Goswami
needs to play to reach the milestone of 200 ODIs.
No, of runs Mithali Raj (1185)
needs to score to surpass Charlotte Edwards (1231) and emerge as the third-highest run-scorer in World Cups.
27 No. of runs
needed by Smriti
Mandhana to reach 5000 runs across formats.
No. of wickets
Ashleigh Gardner
needs to total 50 wickets in ODI.
No. of wickets
Ellyse Perry (31) requires to overtake Cathryn Fitzpatrick (33) and become the fifthhighest wicket-taker in World Cups.
No. of wickets Deepti Sharma needs to take to reach 150 wickets in international matches.
