The unbeaten India Women’s team will take on South Africa in their fifth match of the ICC Women’s World Cup, 2017. The Mithali Raj-led team had beaten SA in the final of the Quadrangular series in South Africa and would like to carry the confidence into the forthcoming match.
Asked about the familiarity with the SA side, Mithali said, “We have played (against them) in the last series before the World Cup. We lost one game in the league, but otherwise we have been beating them. But again, they have been doing well till their last game against England. It is a good thing that we have played their main bowlers and know their bowling attack, but it’s a new game. They are coming into tomorrow’s game with a lot of confidence scoring 300-odd while chasing. It’s a fresh game, and we have our plans and hopefully it comes off.”
Speaking about facing SA next, Veda Krishnamurthy had earlier said, “We are quite confident. In the last four-five games against them everybody did well. We are aware of their team, combination and players so we can play according to our strength. Since we played them recently, we have an idea of strengths and weakness and we will be working towards it.”
While the pacers have provided breakthroughs early on, it’s the spin attack that has had the oppositions in a bind so far in the tournament. They have been doing consistently well for the side in recent times. Speaking about spinners, the captain said, “Playing spinners was because Sri Lankan wickets (during the qualifiers) were on the slower side and they did struggle against the turn but again playing them on South African tracks is completely different. Our spinners have done well. It gives me a lot of options, but again, I would emphasize on the fact that it is (on) that day how the bowlers bowl; the rhythm that they get is more important.”
Asked about Shikha Pandey, who has had success against SA, but hasn’t played in the last two matches for India, Mithali explained, “Shikha has been doing well for the team. She was the pick of the bowlers during the Qualifiers when Jhulu (Jhulan Goswami) was not a part of the squad. The fast bowling attack’s responsibility was more on Shikha and she lived up to it. In South Africa, she was here and there (in a few games). It is again how you find your momentum. It is also that we aim to see that a youngster (Mansi Joshi) should be tested in pressure games as well. She did reasonably well in the last (two) games. We have not yet thought about our combination.”
Discussing the team’s form further and the creases that need to be ironed out, Mithali said, “I would want my top-order to fire and get those runs going from the start. Irrespective of who gets those runs, we need to work on partnerships. We need to have at least three-four partnerships. We have to aim more than 250 knowing the fact they are capable of scoring 300 in the second innings (while batting second), which we have seen in the last game. For that it is important that the runs come from batter’s bat.
“Spinners have done well, but I want the fast bowlers to chip in with more than a wicket at the top; couple of early wickets puts pressure while chasing. And fielding, definitely yes (needs to improve),” she added.
Discussing how the sides stack against each other, Krishnamurthy had earlier said, “We are more compact when it comes to South Africa because individually they are very good but when it comes to collective performance, they really depend on their main players to do well, but in ours – we take roles and it’s not like one person is performing every day. We make sure that there is someone who steps up and scores and the rest supports them.”
Besides an expected high intensity clash, the Indian skipper too is approaching a historic landmark. Mithali has scored 5959 runs and is just 34 away from surpassing Charlotte Edwards (with 5992 runs in ODIs) as the highest run-getter in Women’s ODIs. Asked about the milestone and landmark 6000 runs on the horizon, she said, “I was asked about this at the beginning of the tournament and I still stick to what I said. It is important for me to get as many runs as I can so it complements the result of the game in favour of my team. And how much ever I score, I think I will be happy scoring runs for the country irrespective of where it leads me individually as a player. I enjoy batting and I don’t intend to stop scoring runs.”
