There wasn’t much hype around the India vs Pakistan encounter at the Women’s ODI World Cup on Sunday. Given what had happened at the Asia Cup, where tempers flared, fans would have expected something similar to happen. But then, in reality, at least the Pakistani men’s team could compete with India; the women’s team are mere minnows in the competition. And hence, they lost the match to Harmanpreet Kaur’s side by a massive 88 runs, while chasing 248.
India 12 Pakistan 0 in ODIs
Of course, there was no handshake at the toss, or after the match, but then, there was no drama surrounding it. In fact, no real words were exchanged between the two teams.. except perhaps on one instance where spinner Nashra Sandhu sent a cold stare to Harmanpreet. Coming back to the match; though with this convincing win India move to top of the points table, but it was just not the performance one would want to see from the side.
The middle-order displayed immense pressure once more and, kind of failed. Harman scored 19 from 34, Jemimah Rodrigues 32 from 37, Deepti Sharma 25 from 33, and Sneh Rana 20 from 33. Richa Ghosh did blast a few in the end and scored 35 from 20. But then the concerns are real.
Batting & Fielding a Big Concern for India
Come the bowling, it was a decent show, but then the fielding did not complement it at all. Richa dropped two catches of Sidra Amin, both easy ones, that ensured she went on to make 81 — highest individual score by a Pakistani against India in ODI cricket. In fact, Amin had another lifeline, after Sree Charani dropped difficult chance
Then there were fielding mishaps too. On top of that, Harman & Co. had questionable DRS reviews — both were lost inside 11 overs. And in that span, there were at least 3 LBW shouts which were out, and were not raised upstairs by the Indians. The match against Pakistan and Sri Lanka earlier, were relatively easier matches, and India might just not get an extra chance against some of the other stronger teams in the competition.
Lastly, coming to the Indian bowling, Kranti Gaud returned with figures of 3/20, while Deepti also bagged three. Sneh Rana was among the wickets as well, and bagged two, while there were two run outs as well.
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