Women’s World Cup 2022: Fate in own hands as India face Bangladesh in must-win encounter – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Two wins in five matches, three of those defeats coming against tough oppositions, and Mithali Raj-led India find themselves in a tricky situation at the Women’s World Cup 2022 in New Zealand. The results are a clear indication that its been a mixed bag for India so far, who stand fourth in the points table with four points from the five games.

India have a positive Net Run-Rate of +0.456, the second-highest in the tournament after Australia’s +1.424, thanks to big victories over Pakistan and West Indies. That should keep them in good stead, but a much dominant performance will be expected against Bangladesh.

But, India will have to win both their remaining games, especially after England showed recovery with two wins in their last two matches. India face Bangladesh on Tuesday, and should they win that one, fate will remain in their own hands heading to the last round-robin game against South Africa.

A loss to Bangladesh would mean India depend on other teams for favourable results even if they win over South Africa.

India’s batters recovered quite well when they faced Australia after that disappointing display against England.

Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur have thus far scored a major chunk of India’s runs at the World Cup, so much so that both of them feature in the top 10 run-getters of the tournament.

While Harmanpreet is fourth in the list with 256 runs, Mandhana features seventh with 226 runs.

Their display against Australia was another example of the resilience shown by the Indian batters at crucial junctures of a match. All-rounder Deepti Sharma was dropped to the bench for the first time this tournament against the Aussies, but that allowed the middle-order to impress. Yastika Bhatia (59) replaced Deepti in the playing XI and showcased what she can do batting at the top.

Bhatia showed that she can play with freedom when given an opportunity and will be raring to produce similar performance against Bangladesh.

Mithali Raj (68), meanwhile, rediscovered her form back with her first half-century of the tournament. After a few disappointing outings with the bat previously, the skipper’s knock, despite it going in vain, must have been a psychological boost, going into India’s last two league matches.

Harmanpreet registered a memorable 171 the last time India met Australia at the 50-over World Cup, but this time she couldn’t emulate that, although she ended up unbeaten on 57.

Bhatia and Raj were involved in a 130-run stand against Australia for the third wicket, and that probably set the platform for India to put a total of 277/7, that was later comfortably chased down by the Aussies.

Harmanpreet Kaur has fared decently well against Bangladesh in WODIs, scoring 195 runs from four matches at a batting average of 97.50. Form will be on her side after two fifties and a century in this tournament so far, and Harmanpreet will be expected once again to provide the balance and stability that the Indian middle-order needs.

To put into context, Harmanpreet has amassed 256 runs at an average of 64 and a strike-rate of 99.61 in the World Cup so far.

This is significantly greater than her performance in the New Zealand ODIs just before the World Cup, where she managed just 96 from four matches at an average of 24.

India forged just a couple of 50-plus partnerships against Australia, one among which was the 130-run stand between Mithali and Bhatia. Pooja Vastrakar showed resistance with a 28-ball knock of 34 before being run-out, but this was after she forged a 54-run stand with Harmanpreet.

More such partnerships will be vital at the top-order as well. Thus far, between India’s opening batters, the partnerships have read 4, 10, 49, 18 and 11 in the five games gone by. A strong start while batting is crucial in any game, and more so it will be vital again given the do-or-die importance of it.

Bowling concerns for India

Jhulan Goswami looked off in India’s match against Australia. She leaked a lot of runs and went wicketless against the six-time champions, enduring figures of 0/64.

India played a bowler less courtesy dropping of Deepti Sharma, and most of the bowlers looked inconsistent in terms of the line and length. Aussies found no difficulty in finding the boundaries whatsoever, with cut shots from Meg Lanning (97) and cover drives from Alyssa Healy (72) making the job relatively easy for Australia, who romped home with six wickets to spare.

India took the game deep against Australia, and Goswami was brought for the final over. That last over summed up Goswami’s forgettable day in what was her 200th WODI, conceding two boundaries to give Australia victory as well as the Aussies’ spot in the semi-final.

Pooja Vastrakar’s spell with the ball, was one silver lining in that match. She was the most economical among Indian bowlers that game with figures of 2/43 (economy rate of 4.30) and those couple of wickets meant that her wicket-tally in the tournament surged to eight.

Rajeshwari Gayakwad, too seemed to have looked in good touch till the game against England, but, like Goswami, went wicketless against Australia. She’s also taken eight wickets so far and will look to get her rhythm back.

Gayakwad finished with figures of 4/31 against Pakistan, the other Asian outfit in the World Cup, and will be hoping to take that match as inspiration in order to produce results against Bangladesh.

Bangladesh cannot be taken lightly from India’s perspective. They stunned Pakistan by nine runs following losses to New Zealand and South Africa, and in their latest encounter, they took the game deep before going down to West Indies by four runs in a low-scoring thriller.

Sneh Rana, though, has reaffirmed the net-run rate remains secondary. “The atmosphere remains positive. After a loss you do feel down but we are in good headspace ahead of the game tomorrow. We will play to win, net run rate remains secondary,” she said ahead of the must-win game.

Rana admitted that no team can be taken lightly, saying there were no easy games. “Bangladesh have reached here by performing. They are always improving. There are no easy games in this World Cup,” she added.

Eyes will be on Fargana Hoque, who has been impressive for Bangladesh with two fifties. She has amassed 154 from four games at an average of 38.50, and will look to produce the runs at the top of the order.

Meanwhile, Salma Khatun has been their leading wicket-taker with five scalps, but the off-break bowler is coming fresh off an economical spell of 2/23 against West Indies, and cannot be taken easy as far as India are concerned.

India will begin this game as favourites but the main focus for Mithali and Co will be to fire in unison and get that big win to remain in contention for the semi-finals.

Squads:

India: Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav.

Bangladesh: Nigar Sultana (c), Salma Khatun, Rumana Ahmed, Fargana Hoque, Jahanara Alam, Shamima Sultana, Fahima Khatun, Ritu Moni, Murshida Khatun, Nahida Akter, Sharmin Akhter, Lata Mondal, Sobhana Mostary, Fariha Trisna, Suraiya Azmin, Sanjida Akter Meghla.

Venue: Seddon Park, Hamilton

Time: 6.30 am IST | 2.00 pm local

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