ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP| DO-OR-DIE FOR INDIA AGAINST NEW ZEALAND

India have put themselves into a position, where now they need to win the last group match against New Zealand to make their progress to the Semi-Finals. India with 8 points from 6 matches & New Zealand with 7 points from as many matches will face each other in a virtual Quater-final, where the winner will proceed to the knockout stage. So, its a do or perish situation for Indian Women's.

Image source : icc-static



India(Ranked 4th in ICC Rankings) started the tournament on a high, beating 2nd Ranked England by 35 Runs, courtesy 144 runs opening partnership between Poonam Raut and Smriti Mandhana. Man of the Match Smriti's valiant 90 in 72 balls served India the cause. England never peaked momentum and got bundled out in 47 overs facing the combo of Sikha Pandey & Deepti Sharma. During course of the match Indian captain Mithali Raj added another feather to her cap, becoming the first woman to score seven successive half-centuries in WODIs.



All next 3 matches, India had an easy outing against WestIndies, Pakistan & Srilanka.India Women won by 7 wickets, with 45 balls remaining against WestIndies. Smriti Mandhana's another brilliant innings of 106 earned her the 2nd MoM of the tournament on the trot. India then thrashed arch rivals Pakistan in a low run encounter. After scoring a meagre 169, Indian bowlers steam rolled Pakistan batters, bundling them out for just 74, courtesy a fifer from Ekta Bisht. India thus continued their unbeaten run against Pakistan in the Odi's and the score line Stands 10-0 now and World Cup wins 3-0. India next defeated Srilanka by 16 runs, with an all round contribution from Deepti Sharma, thus making 4 match unbeaten streak

image:source :wikimedia



India at this stage were cruising to the Semi-Finals and even dreaming of a Top 2 finish after the round-robin matches. But the engine staggered heneforth and they lost the next 2 matches against South Africa & Australia comprehensively. The mammoth 115 runs loss against South Africa hurt their confidence such that they lost against Australia without a fight and too on a historical day when India's Mithali Raj became the leading run-scorer in WODIs, passing the previous record of 5,992 runs set by Charlotte Edwards (Eng), and became the first woman to pass 6,000 runs in WODIs.



Hope India Women's will get out of this cornered situation with a boom. The Whole of India is waiting for the Women in Blue to show their prowess and march into the semis, after 8 years, the last edition being a dismal outing.