QUEENSTOWN, Feb 22: The Indian women’s cricket team’s horror tour of New Zealand continued as the White Ferns demolished the visitors by 63 runs in a rain-curtailed fourth WODI on Tuesday to inch towards a clean sweep in the five-match series here.
The game became a glorified ‘T20’ due to rain as Amelia Kerr stole the show with a 33-ball-68 which took New Zealand to 191 for 5.
Amelia, one half of the famous Kerr sisters, then mopped up the tail with 3 for 30 as India managed only 128 before being all-out in 17.5 overs.
Teenager Richa Ghosh’s counter-attacking 52 off 29 balls was the only silver lining in an otherwise disastrous performance which has now led to five defeats on this tour including the one-off T20.
The bowling performance of the Indians seemed to have nose-dived with each passing game and it was the worst on Tuesday where only Rajeshwari Gayakwad (4-0-26-1) looked the part.
Meghna Singh (1/45 in 4 overs) and Deepti Sharma (1/49 in 4 overs) were two bowlers taken to the cleaners by Amelia who had 11 fours and a six in her kitty.
New Zealand started on a rousing note with a 53-run opening stand between Sophie Devine (32 of 24 balls) and Suzie Bates (41 off 26 balls).
Once the platform was laid, Amelia and Amy Satterthwaite (32 off 16 balls) literally pummelled the Indian bowling.
A chase of 192 was always going to be a tough ask even though the out of form Harmanpreet Kaur was dropped from the playing eleven.
Smriti Mandhana very understandably was out of rhythm after a long and hard quarantine and youngsters Shafali Verma (0) and Yastika Bhatia (0) were out in quick succession.
The match was as good as over by the fifth over when India were reduced to 19 for 4.
Richa and Mithali Raj (30 off 28 balls) added 67 runs but it was in a lost cause as wickets fell at regular interval.
Amelia’s sister Jess also got two wickets upfront while Francis Mackay and Heley Jensen shared the spoils with two and three wickets respectively.
The only time India had something to cheer about was when Richa clobbered the White Ferns bowlers for four huge sixes and four boundaries while Mithali played the second fiddle.
Once Richa was gone, the stomach for fight wasn’t evident in others as six wickets fell for 32 runs.
Time is running out for coach Ramesh Powar as only two weeks are left for World Cup to start and it is not at all looking good for the team. (PTI)
