The fourth Women’s One-Day International (W-ODI) of the five-match series will be played on Tuesday, February 22nd, at 3:30 a.m. IST at John Davies Oval in Queenstown, New Zealand. In the third W-ODI of the series, the Indian Women were defeated by the New Zealand Women by three wickets.
India is yet to win a single match in the five-match series. And, in the same venue with similar conditions, they’ll return on a new day, hoping to break out of their rut and build up to next month’s World Cup.
India women looking for their first win
Despite the absence of several key players and the team experimenting with different lineups in preparation for the marquee event, India’s performances haven’t been as bad as the series scoreline suggests, especially with the batters managing high scores in the previous two games without Smriti Mandhana in the XI. However, no team would want to accumulate losses in the run-up to a tournament as important as the World Cup.
Despite Mandhana’s absence and Harmanpreet Kaur’s scoring slump, the batting looks fairly assured after scores of 270 and 279 in the last two games. However, the lack of wickets and inability to control New Zealand’s middle-order scoring, particularly that of Amelia Kerr, has been a source of concern.
The 3rd ODI
The Indian team got off to a good start thanks to a brilliant start at the top from Shefali Verma and Sabbhineni Meghana, who put up a 100-run stand for the visitors. Mithali Raj suffered a rare series failure. India scored 279 runs thanks to all-rounder Deepti Sharma’s 69 runs per ball.
With top batters Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates back in the team, the White Ferns were reeling at 14/2 after three overs. With their gritty half-centuries, Amy Satterthwaithe and Amelia Kerr rescued the New Zealand side before Lauren Down and Katey Martin took the hosts over the line in the final over of the innings.
Key players back
India will welcome back Smriti Mandhana and pacer Meghna Singh into the team and they will help the team get some much-needed game practice before the World Cup.
