India demolished New Zealand in what was a virtual quarter-final and made it to the last four of the Women’s World Cup. One of the legends of the sport, Mithali Raj led from the front and scored a well-crafted century to help the Women in Blue register a mammoth 186-run win.
With the help of Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy, the skipper took India’s score to 265, which proved to be a bit too much for the White Ferns, who bowed out of the tournament with this loss. Indian women took all the right steps to storm into the semi-finals as they finished as fourth-placed team on the points table.
Here are five things which they did right throughout the course of the match to earn the win.
#1 Mithali Raj stepping up when team needed her the most
Being invited by the NZ captain Suzie Bates to bat first, India lost both their openers with only 21 runs on the board. Aware of the fact that this was a must-win match, Mithali Raj put her head down and stabilised the conditions for her team.
The skipper came in to bat in the fourth over and lost her wicket on the penultimate delivery of the innings. Spending more than three hours in the middle, Mithali scored 109 runs with the help of 11 boundaries. Never in her innings, the highest ODI run-scorer looked edgy and didn’t let the NZ bowling attack put any sort of pressure on her.
She stitched a 132-run partnership with Harmanpreet Kaur for the third wicket and a 108-run partnership with Veda Krishnamurthy for the fifth wicket.
#2 Middle order partnerships
The reflex action for a team who lost both their openers quickly is to take a cautious approach and build partnerships. And the Indian team did exactly that.
Last match’s centurion Punam Raut lost her wicket after adding just four runs to the board while Smriti Mandhana lost her wicket to yet another fullish delivery four overs later. Two experienced customers in Mithali and Kaur weathered the early storm then and paced their partnership beautifully to create a launch pad for the rest of the batting line-up.
While looking to up the ante, the 28-year-old Punjabi batswoman lost her wicket after scoring a 90-ball-60. Though the innings was a bit slow by her standards, it was precisely what was needed in such a crunch situation of a crucial game.
NZ made a sort of comeback then and removed Deepti Sharma in the next over itself. However, in walked Veda Krishnamurthy and changed the complexion of the game, adding quick-fire 108 runs in just 13 overs with the skipper.
#3 Krishnamurthy destroying the opposition in the death overs
With the scoreboard reading 154 for four in 36.3 overs, the swashbuckling batswoman blasted White Ferns bowling to all parts of the park. She faced a good 15-16 deliveries to get her eye in before letting go.
With the help of seven boundaries and two sixes, the 24-year-old added 70 runs in 45 balls, taking the Indian total to an above par 265 runs. Mithali Raj held on to one side and allowed Krishnamurthy the license to play big shots.
It was her innings which made the target daunting enough for the New Zealand side, who fell like a pack of cards in the second innings.
#4 Not allowing Suzie Bates to weave her magic
Bates came into the tournament on the condition that she won’t be bowling heavily because of a side strain. However, because of the couple of big Indian partnerships, she had to bowl eight overs – like she did in the last match – in which she went for 59 runs.
Then with the bat in her hands, the NZ skipper walked in to open the innings and went back in the second over itself. Shikha Pandey got her caught in the slips on the first delivery of the second over, giving the White Ferns a big jolt early on.
With their captain back in the hut early on, the rest of the team followed suit and lost all their wickets with just 79 runs on the board.
#5 Rajeshwari Gayakwad’s fifer
The slow left-arm bowler was playing her first match of the World Cup, one which was a virtual quarter-final for her team, and she grabbed the opportunity with both hands. The Karnataka player came in to bowl in the eleventh over with three of the NZ batswomen already back in the dressing room.
However, she did not get complacent and in the fourth over of her spell picked her first wicket. She, then, picked one wicket each in the subsequent four over of her spells and absolutely owned the NZ batting batswomen.
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