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Under-fire India women seek to level ODI series
Having lost the first ODI by five wickets, Harmanpreet Kaur-led India face a must-win situation against Australia
Kolkata: The series is on the line as India face Australia in the second women’s ODI at Brisbane on Sunday while trying to address a temporary top-order batting crisis that has largely been triggered by the absence of Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia. Smriti Mandhana too was off form in the first ODI as India were dismissed for 100, a score Australia chased down in 16.2 overs with five wickets to spare. That made Sunday a must-win match to stay alive in the series.
Winning in Australia is always difficult, but the odds of India have taken a massive beating after their performance in the opening ODI. Barring the stand between Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues, India weren’t looking a very confident batting unit despite favourable conditions. Shot selection was iffy, and so was the conviction in running between the wickets.
The only positive was the comparatively better display from Indian bowlers, which pace bowler Titas Sadhu believes can be matched on Sunday. “The match did not go the way we wanted it to, but I’m sure we will bounce back strongly,” said Sadhu ahead of the match. “The major thing that we have talked about is that one match doesn’t make you a good team or a bad team. We’ll just keep on doing the processes that we have followed until now, and go there and try to put on the best show we can. We have played some good cricket this year, and we’ll take (confidence) from that.”
Given several current India team players have been in Australia for the past five weeks for the WBBL, the hosts too are braced for a fightback. “I’m sure they wouldn’t be too pleased with how they went about the innings the other day,” Australia seamer Kim Garth said. “I can’t imagine them coming out anything but firing tomorrow. They have a lot of world-class players in their line-up and I’m sure they’ll come out firing.”
