Mirpur, July 12: With focus firmly on batting, the Indian women’s cricket team will be eyeing a 3-0 sweep of Bangladesh, when the fancied visitors take on the beleaguered hosts in the final T20 International here on Thursday.
The Harmanpreet Kaur-led outfit won the first two matches without much fuss and will be looking to do an encore when it takes to the field in the third game. However, it is easier said than done given India’s mediocre outing with the bat in the second match.
Barring Richa Ghosh, who is not part of the team due to fitness issues and captain Harmanpreet, there are no real power hitters in the side and that weakness was exposed on Tuesday when India managed a below par 95 before Bangladesh self-destructed to hand the visitors the series on a platter.
There will be added pressure on under performing Shafali Verma, who looked in good touch on Tuesday but could not make it count.
While her 14-ball 19 eventually turned out to be the team’s highest score in the unforgettable collapse, the young batter is well aware of her capabilities and expectations from her, and has another chance to get back among big runs before the ODI leg of the tour starting July 16.
The likes of Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Yastika Bhatia rely on the bowlers’ pace to find boundaries but against the Bangladesh spinners they had a tough time.
Harleen batted with a sorry strike rate of 28.57 while Jemimah took 21 balls to score eight runs, which is not good enough in the modern game.
Senior pro and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana too will be keen to get going after getting dismissed for a run-a-ball 13 on Tuesday.
All-rounder Deepti Sharma too needs to do more as a finisher. If skipper Harmanpreet doesn’t fire, the team struggles to find the big sixes.
India were expected to blank Bangladesh and in all probability they would do that on Thursday but concerns remain in all departments for the tougher battles ahead. Besides a dismal batting show, the Indian fielding too left a lot to be desired.
The Indian bowlers, however, will enter the final T20I high on morale.
It is expected to be another game dominated by spinners, who took as many as 16 wickets in the game and bowled 35 overs.
Pooja Vastrakar was the only Indian pacer used in Bangladesh’s innings in the second game and bowled only six balls while Marufa Akter bowled four overs for the home team.
For India, rookie spinners Minnu Mani and Anusha Bareddy have given a good account of themselves in the two games and will be looking to make the most of another opportunity.
Defending 96, Deepti and Shafali delivered with the ball to bundle out the opponents in exactly 20 overs, with Bangladesh skipper Nigar Sultana (38 off 55 balls) playing a lone hand.
As far as the home team is concerned, there batters too would look to give a much better account of themselves to raise hopes of a consolation win, which looks unlikely at the moment given the Indian team’s all-round strength even though the Bangladesh bowlers did extremely well to restrict the visitors in their last outing. (PTI)
Match Starts: 1:30 pm IST.