New Zealand Women thrashed India Women by a massive margin of 62 runs to achieve their 2nd win of the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 at Seddon Park, Hamilton. In reply of Kiwis, 260, Indian Women could only muster up 198 runs in total.
Both Amelia Kerr and Amy Satterthwaite scored individual fifties to help New Zealand post a respectable total on the board.
Here’s how the action unfolded:
The Indian skipper Mithali Raj won the toss and invited her counterparts to bat first in the game.
New Zealand Women took the opportunities presented to them by utmost delight and dominated India throughout most of their innings.
Pooja Vastrakar’s brilliant throw helped India get an early breakthrough, but the bowlers could not capitalise on it.
Sophie Devine and Amelia Kerr took New Zealand past 50 before the former departed against Vastrakar in the 11th over of the innings.
Following Devine’s footsteps, Satterthwaite did not let the Indian bowlers penetrate the Kiwi batting line-up. She stood firm in the middle alongside Kerr to form a 67 run stand for the 3rd wicket.
Gayakwad dismissed Kerr at the exact score of 50 and brought India back into the game for a while.
However, at the other end, Satterthwaite played effortlessly as she notched up a fine fifty and ultimately scored 75, including 9 fours.
Vastrakar bowled a beauty to dismiss Satterthwaite, but it was already too late for the Indians. New Zealand managed to score 260 for the loss of 9 wickets. Vastrakar, who picked up 4 wickets, was the pick of the bowlers for the India women.
Chasing 260, Indian openers failed to set up a platform for the middle-order to fire. Bhatia and Mandhana played uncharacteristic innings of strike rate less than 50.
India continued losing wickets at the regular interval, and apart from Harmanpreet Kaur, no one put up any sort of resistance against the Kiwi bowlers.
Kaur top-scored for India with 71 off 63 deliveries, including six fours and two sixes at a strike rate of around 113. Barring Kaur and Mithali, none of the Indian batters crossed the 30 run mark.
India folded up on 198 to concede their first loss of the tournament by 62 runs. Kerr and Lea Tahuhu each scalped 3 Indian wickets.