Internet Desk: Mithali Raj led Indian women’s cricket team would like to forget their humiliating loss in the last match against South Africa when they lock horns with the mighty Aussies in their second last round robin match of ICC Women’s World Cup at the Bristol County Ground on Wednesday.
Coincidentally both the teams have lost their last match in the tournament, the women in blue lost the match by a huge margin of 115 runs against the Proteas. On the other hand, Australia lost their match against hosts England by just three runs.
Australia are in a slightly better position as they have strong run-rate, but with poor run rate India must have to win one in their remaining two matches. After Australia the Indian women will face New Zealand in their last round robin match.
Though India have a poor record against Australia as they had won only eight games of 41 completed matches. But last time skipper Mithali Raj played a captain’s knock of 89 runs as India registered a five-wicket win over Australia.
Shikha Pandey came back into the side against South Africa, and explained that the team is very aware of the precarious position in which it finds itself.
She said, “We need to pull ourselves back from the defeat. The best cricket that we can play is there, so hopefully it will come against Australia.
“Our initial breakthrough has been a concern for us. We need to play more attacking cricket, similar to that of South Africa [on Saturday]. We need to plan better for that.
“Even before the World Cup started, we said that we were going to do our best and not have to depend on other teams.
“Obviously, all that now comes into the picture, so we’ll do what we do best – that is winning the next two games, and then we’ll see what happens.”
Squads:
Australia: Meg Lanning (captain), Sarah Aley, Kristen Beams, Nicole Bolton, Alex Blackwell, Ashleigh Gardner, Rachael Haynes, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Belinda Vakarewa, Elyse Villani and Amanda-Jade Wellington.
India: Mithali Raj (captain), Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Mansi Joshi, Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy, Smrti Mandhana, Mona Meshram, Shikha Pandey, Poonam, Nuzhat Parween, Punam Raut, Deepti Sharma and Sushma Verma.