India, the champions of last year’s event, will face UAE in their Women’s Asia Cup tie on Sunday in a bid to secure a semi-final berth by getting everything in place. Having just beaten Pakistan by seven wickets, India would like to make it two wins out of two as they sit on 2 points and have an NRR of +2.29.
A victory against UAE would bring India’s tally to four points and would therefore boost their NRR while cementing their position in the tournament.
Rather than concentrating on their opponents, India is going into this game with the focus of refining its own tactics against UAE. Deepti Sharma together with Renuka Singh and Pooja Vastrakar among others were fantastic during the match against Pakistan much to the management’s delight.
Pooja Vastrakar had an expensive rate but she contributed immensely overall. Further, they expect that Radha Yadav who returned home from South Africa will feature in this next contest.
“It was good spell also there was some assistance from weather as well so obviously I could execute all those plans which I practice at nets” said Renuka Singh according to Parami News (Post-match press conference).
Indian batters showed aggression while chasing down Pakistan’s score, accomplishing it with 35 balls remaining. Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana set up an excellent platform for rest of team through their partnership of 85 runs for first wicket which required only 9.3 overs. Afterward three wickets fell but this performance promises continuous contributions from middle order batsmen starting from game against UAE.
For Bangladesh’s T20 World Cup later this year, every single edition of Asia Cup is vital for Indian preparation towards the same goal. The significance of this event as a build-up to ICC showpiece was emphasize by Renuka Singh.
“After this we don’t have many matches (ahead of T20 WC) and we will have to rely on practice. So, this is a learning experience for us, and the conditions (in Bangladesh) could be similar. So, this is a good chance for us to get ready for the World Cup,” she said.
But India must not let their mind wander off just because they are thinking about future goals. The UAE demonstrated potential in a close match against Nepal on Friday even though they went down by six wickets. This performance signals UAE’s ability to pose huge threats.
In Pakistan’s second game of the day against Nepal, they will hope to come back from a defeat by India.
India has been winning all along; up until now the dominance remains in place as such it must be maintain for India to secure at least semifinal place based on their game strategy and use this tournament as an essential build-up activity before the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup.
