London, Jun 28 (PTI) Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur made a quick 56 off 27 balls but rest of the line-up struggled for acceleration as India posted a slightly under par 170 for four against Australia in their must-win Women’s T20 World Cup match here on Sunday.
India mandatorily need to win this match, as South Africa earlier defeated Bangladesh by four wickets to move up to second place behind the Aussies with eight points.
India did start well through openers Smriti Mandhana (38) and Shafali Verma (34), who added 66 runs but safety appeared their first concern than scoring fast as the run-rate never really went above 7. There were occasional flares of aggression like Shafali’s two sixes off off-spinner Ashleigh Gardner or Mandhana’s successive fours
off pacer Kim Garth.
India finished the power play at rather fine 43 for no loss, but could have really step on the gas from that point. Shafali understood the need to change the gear, but her attempt to carve Australian skipper Sophie Molineux brought in disastrous results.
The right-hander lost her balance and lost her off-stump.
Mandhana too did not last long as a terrible mix-up with Jemimah Rodrigues (34, 28b) left her stranded in the middle of the pitch, as Georgia Wareham’s throw from deep reached bowler Lucy Hamilton accurately.
Rodrigues started with a four off Molineux but could not maintain the same tempo for the rest of her innings. She was even dropped on 27, which went for a six, off pacer Annabel Sutherland in the deep and in the very next ball on 33.
But she was retired out before the final over to give a chance to big-hitting Richa Ghosh, though she faced just one ball.
But Harmanpreet was quite fluent during her stay, exploiting the gentler pace of Wareham and Molineux for some quick runs.
The skipper, who reached fifty in 26 balls, flayed her Aussie counterpart for three sixes in a row in the final over, which yielded 23 runs, as India reached 170, a respectable total and one that might push the six-time champions to the limits. PTI UNG APA APA
