Women’s T20 World Cup: India look to sharpen their batting against Netherlands
In the opener against Pakistan, Smriti Mandhana at the top and Richa Ghosh at the bottom made the difference with the bat.
The rest of the batting line-up, including opener Shafali Verma and Harmanpreet Kaur, could not make it to the party.
Bharti Fulmali plays a crucial role in the middle order but had a memorable debut in the ICC event.
For the tough competitions in the league stage, Indian batsmen need more consistency.
The Netherlands game should be a breeze, but India need to beat either Australia or South Africa in the league stage to qualify for the semi-finals.
Against Pakistan, the fielding was initially not up to the mark, but there were some good catches in the innings later on. Both the pacers (Arundhati Reddy and Kranti Gaud) failed to make an impact. Both would be looking for early breakthroughs at Headingley.
The spin duo of Deepti Sharma and Shree Charani shared eight wickets between themselves, with the former taking a five-wicket haul. It was important for Deepti to stay fit, having scored runs in the series leading up to the T20 showcase.
Charani has been impressive in his burgeoning international career, troubling the top batsmen with his guile and evasion.
Netherlands entered the game after losing to Bangladesh.
They will need improvement in all departments to challenge India.
“I think it wasn’t the fire we were hoping for in all three facets of the game. With the bat I think we were a few runs short. We never really got going. We lost a bit too many wickets along the way.
After the opening defeat, captain Babette de Leede said, “On the field too, I think Bangladesh are on a flier. On the field, we lost a few catches in the innings. So overall I think there is a lot to learn and improve from a great experience.”
Squads:
Netherlands: Babette de Leede (c), Caroline de Lange, Frederique Overdijk, Hannah Landheer, Heather Siegers, Iris Zwilling, Isabel van der Woning, Lara Leemhuis, Myrthe van den Raad, Phebe Molkenboer, Robine Rijke, Rosalie Lawrence, Sanya Khurana, Silver Siegers, Sterre Kalis.
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Bharti Fulmali, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Shree Charani, Yastika Bhatia, Nandani Sharma, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh, Kranti Gaud, Shreyanka Patil, Radha Yadav.
The match starts at 19:00 IST.
