Mumbai: England women on Thursday scripted a sensational recovery from a difficult position to register a consolation two-wicket win in the third and final ODI to prevent hosts India from completing a whitewash in the three-match series.
Chasing India’s total of 205/8, England were struggling at 49/5 before all-rounder Danni Wyatt (56 off 82 balls) stitched two crucial partnerships with skipper Heather Knight (47 off 63 balls) and Georgia Elwiss (33 not out off 53 balls) to pave the way for their victory.
England scored 208-8 in 48.5 overs to grab two crucial points as the three-game series is part of ICC Women’s Championship.
India women’s ODI team captain Mithali Raj is disappointed for not being able to complete a series whitewash against England, but said the 2-1 win over the current world champions would act as a huge confidence booster for her side.
Mithali rued the missed opportunity to not only complete a 3-0 series whitewash against a quality side like England, but also lose out on crucial two points in the ICC Women’s Championship. “Well, it does play a very important part because, obviously we are not playing Pakistan and we just have one more team that we are still to play, the West Indies,” said Mithali after the hosts lost the third and final ODI of the series by two wickets here on Thursday. Putting things in perspective, Mithali said India now has only the contest against the West Indies to look for after having lost two points each against Sri Lanka, South Africa and also in New Zealand.
“So pretty much in totality we lost eight points when we were in a position to grab those 2 points in all those series. So it is disappointing but winning against one of the quality sides with full strength gives lot of confidence to this side,” she added. She said only against New Zealand the team became a bit complacent after wrapping up the rubber. “Only in New Zealand, we felt it was a one-sided game in the third ODI.
But it was a well fought match against Sri Lanka, which went till the last over and also in South Africa when we played South Africa, so those matches were well fought.”The two teams will now head to Guwahati to play the three-match T20I series. (PTI)
