India’s Harmanpreet Kaur in motion throughout the first ODI match between India (Women) and Australia (Women) at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Dec 28, 2023.
| Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI
India ladies’s cricket group captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s form with the bat shall be in focus as the group appears to salvage pride and finish a nine-match dropping streak at house against a dominant Australia in the third and final ODI in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Kaur has led her facet admirably effectively in an extended house season, with a few historic outcomes in the Tests, however, this era has additionally witnessed her wrestle with the bat. She has scored runs in double digits solely thrice in eight innings throughout codecs this season, with her highest being 49 against England in the one-off Test final month.
In the historic win against Australia in the one-off Test, Kaur was out for a duck in the primary innings and she or he was not required to bat in the second innings. In the 2 ODIs against Australia, her scores have been 9 and 5. Australia has taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match sequence.
India haven’t overwhelmed Australia even as soon as in the 50-over format since February 2007.
Work in progress
While India made the many of the beneficial house situations in the one-off Test match, the house group’s frailties have come to the fore once more in white-ball cricket in the final two ODIs. While the Indian group was peculiar with the ball in the primary ODI, which they misplaced by six wickets, Kaur’s facet dropped as many as seven catches in the second sport, as the Australian facet get away with a three-run win in the second sport.
At the identical time, Richa Ghosh’s heroics in the second ODI — 96 off 113 balls (13 fours) in a stiff chase — and Jemimah Rodrigues’ consistency (82 and 44) have delivered the products with the bat for India. Ghosh is India’s new discover in No. 3 and to having an aggressive batter in the highest order has given the hosts a number of firepower. The stress shall be on the likes of Amanjot Kaur and Deepti Sharma, who couldn’t end the sport for India, though the hosts wanted to get virtually run-a-ball to win in the second ODI.
The cliched previous adage of ‘catches win matches’ got here to the fore once more after India dropped no less than seven probabilities, and head coach Amol Muzumdar admitted after the sport that Kaur’s group stays a piece in progress.
India’s defeat by six wickets in the primary ODI and narrowly by three runs in the second prolonged their plight at house against Australia, whom they haven’t overwhelmed even as soon as in the 50-over format in the final 16 years since February 2007.
Muzumdar had additionally confirmed that Sneh Rana can be obtainable for the final ODI after lacking the second half of the final sport due to a collision with Pooja Vastrakar.
India will host the 2025 Women’s 50-over World Cup and with the core of the squad already decided, the duty hereon can be to enhance in all departments, significantly fielding.
Australia, on their half, can be eager on placing a greater present in the sector, after dropping a couple of regulation probabilities in the final match, whereas huge runs are awaited from skipper Alyssa Healy. Healy has been scoring in double-digit figures persistently, however an enormous rating has abandoned her thus far. The group can even anticipate fireworks from each Phoebe Litchfield and Ellyse Perry who’ve hit fifties in each the ODIs.
The groups
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Shreyanka Patil, Mannat Kashyap, Saika Ishaque, Renuka Singh Thakur, Titas Sadhu, Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana, Harleen Deol.
Australia: Alyssa Healy (c & wk), Darcie Brown, Heather Graham, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney (wk), Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham.
Match begins at 1:30 p.m..
