All-Round New Zealand Crush India In Women's World Cup

HAMILTON: On the back of fifties from Amy Satterthwaite and Amelia Kerr apart from the latter and Lea Tahuhu sharing six wickets between themselves, an all-round New Zealand crushed India by 62 runs at Seddon Park in the eighth match of ICC Women's Cricket World Cup, here on Thursday.

India, who had opted to bat second in the hope of dew aiding them in the chase, pulled back things in last ten overs of New Zealand's innings, taking 6/49 and keeping them to a par score of 260. But New Zealand didn't allow any breathing space in the first 20 overs, resulting in India not getting the required tempo to ace the chase. Eventually, they were all out for with Harmanpreet Kaur's 71 the lone bright spot.

Frankie Mackay's off-spin and pace from Jess Kerr kept India on a tight leash from the word go. The duo were bang-on with their line and length and didn't offer Smriti Mandhana and Yastika Bhatia any width. Smriti, whose shots were mostly going to the fielders, tried to break the shackles off Jess in the sixth over.

Jess, coming in from round the wicket, got Smriti to mistime a loft to cover. New Zealand's relentless pursuit of building the dot-ball pressure bore fruit as Deepti Sharma was trapped lbw on last ball of power-play off Lea. The on-field umpire gave it lbw but New Zealand took the review and got to reverse the decision in their favour.

India's too slow a start and New Zealand's disciplined bowling meant they never got the chance to break free and rotate the strike. Post-power-play, Yastika went for the push early, giving mid-off a catch off the leading edge.

Mithali Raj, dropped by cover off Lea early in the knock, stitched a laborious 47-run stand off 63 balls with Harmanpreet. But Amelia, introduced from 25th over, made double strikes in the 30th over to dent India's chances of making an improbable comeback in the match.

India's fightback in death overs began when Pooja forced Amy to flick in the air and found mid-wicket fielder. Rajeshwari then beat Hayley on the sweep to hit the stumps. Pooja delivered back-to-back yorkers to take out Lea and Jess. In the final over of the innings, Jhulan got a scalp against her name as her yorker ended Katey's stay at 41.

Brief Scores: New Zealand 260/9 in 50 overs (Amy Satterthwaite 75, Amelia Kerr 50; Pooja Vastrakar 4/34, Rajeshwari Gayakwad 2/46) beat India 198 all out in 46.4 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 71, Mithali Raj 31; Lea Tahuhu 3/17, Amelia Kerr 3/56) by 62 runs. IANS

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