The group is a hard one and the Indian girls would hardly have wanted to begin in such a manner. Everything did not gel for them on Friday night at the Dubai International Stadium as the Women In Blue slipped to an embarrassing defeat by 58 runs.
Even though fielding was below par when New Zealand batted, the much vaunted Indian top order faltered badly on a two-paced surface while chasing 161 by losing early wickets. Reassuringly for India, perhaps the most surprising two words in this crazy tournament would be ‘face cut’ but this was. In only the second over, the painless faced opener Shafali Verma offered a dolly back to offie Eden Carson.
Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues were also aware that a good Powerplay was essential if they were to remain in contention. But inside the power play of the first six overs, Smriti and Harmanpreet were found on the wrong side of a dismissal; appearing to be confused on how the pitch was playing out. Not long after Jemimah walked away heroically and the rest was only for New Zealanders to remember in their dreams. It was the third instance for India being all out in a T20I match. Their innings ended at 102 runs in the 19th phrase. For the World Cup, head coach Amol Muzumdar has been very vocal on the need to work on the fielding and fitness.
As much as all the effort put in snagged the collaboration girls still fell short in these two aspects as New Zealand set a competitive total of 160 for 4 in 20 overs. At the top Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer provided good and cautious opening partnerships as Indians continued to blunder and dropped an important catch early on in the game.
In the final over of Powerplay, India committed two errors both of which raised evident eyebrows considering the context on the hot day. First, deep square leg Renuka Singh could spellbound a regulation stop that turned out to be congratulations for Plimmer later on. Next, Bates was very fortunate on 18. An attempt at a slip Misra flick was a top edged sweep which flew straightback towards the two bails but Richa Ghosh who went for a reverse cup could not get him out.
There were errors at the backend of the innings as well that helped New Zealand give India a tough target on a slow wicket.
Batting after dismissing Plimmer and Bates, NZ captain Sophie Devine (57*, 36b; 7×4) displayed all her class. She let loose all her tenacity and foot movement against the Indian spinners in the middle overs. She was able to fetch some boundaries as she picked and chose her attacking shots as well, which enabled New Zealand to up the ante in their scoring rate. Devine was with Amelia Kerr who came in at no 3 rebuilding the attack of New Zealand when she got a reprieve on 13.
It was the second and final wicket for Kerr and Devine obtained during the run when Harmanpreet threw from long off to the keeper. Richa ran sera and hara as the fast pace saw Deepti receive back her cap from the umpire the other side. The umpire thought there would be no out taken before the general run-out of Robinson happened and this didn’t go down well especially with Harmanpreet and her support staff.
Kerr was not back in the fray for long after the facemask had disappeared as she went off to Pooja Vastrakar off Renuka Singh on the mid off. Nevertheless, once Kerr was out, the pressure was shifted on Devine who along with Brooke Halliday, blitzed their way through the NZ innings. The pair scored a stunning 46 runs in just 4.2 overs at a time when scoring was quite tough and took the match away from India’s grasps completely.
BRIEF SCORES: New Zealand 160/4 (Sophie Devine 57 not out, Georgia Plimmer 34; Renuka Singh 2/27) bt India 102 in 19 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 15; Rosemary Mair 4/19) by 58 runs.
