India women face SA in must-win fourth ODI

The hosts, playing their first international games in a year, are 1-2 down in the five-match series being played in Lucknow

Consistency will be the key to success for the hosts India when they take on South Africa in the fourth women’s one-day international at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana International Stadium here on Sunday.

Punam Raut (L) and Smriti Mandhana. (BCCI)

After an eight-wicket defeat in the first game of the five-match series last week, Mithali Raj and Co handed the Proteas their worst loss in terms of wickets (9 wickets) on Tuesday, only to lose Friday’s third game by six runs (D/L method).

Down 1-2, India can’t afford another loss with two games left. They need to find consistency in all departments with focus on hard-hitting in the middle order. In the last game, Lizelle Lee hit an unbeaten 132 to single-handedly fashion the visitors’ win.

Mithali Raj blamed the frontline bowlers. “There were moments in the game when the main bowlers were bowling important spells that could have changed the momentum and we weren't able to do that,” she said after the game. All three games were won by the team chasing a target.

The skipper touched upon the struggles playing international cricket after a year. “When we play against Australia or say England, we are looking to score 270-plus but this is our third game after a long gap. We are one of those countries which started cricket quite late whereas other teams have already played a couple of series,” she said.

“We need to have some game time to work on the players so that we build a game plan for the future. Those will become important for how we plan for the World Cup and the things where we need to work on. It's going to be a process and we have already started on it,” she said.

“We need to have (proper) batters playing the last 10 overs because the sort of game that a batter has, and can improve it, the lower-order batter or tail-ender may not have. We have players like Harman (Harmanpreet Kaur) and Deepti (Sharma). It is a matter of a few innings, and they will come good in those 10 overs."

Jhulan Goswami, India’s 38-year-old pacer, has provided the breakthroughs and is at the top of the charts with eight scalps. The big worry is spinner Poonam Yadav, who is yet to take a wicket. In the 28 overs she has bowled so far, the 29-year-old leg-spinner has conceded 115 runs.

With four wickets so far, spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad has played the supporting role well. Mansi Joshi, too, had picked up a couple of wickets in second ODI, but they still need to be more effective to contain the South African batswomen like Lee.