New Zealand women bag the ODI series against India in three straight games

Mumbai, 18^th Feb 2022: The New Zealand Women’s Cricket Team sealed victory over the Indian Women’s Cricket team in the ongoing ODI series between the countries. After picking up wins in the first two ODIs of the series, the White Ferns finished off the job in the third by chasing down a strong total of 279 set by the Indian women.

India will play for pride to snatch a win in the next ODIs to avoid being whitewashed. The fourth ODI will be streamed live and exclusively on Amazon Prime Video at 3:30 AM on 22nd February.

India’s series-long solid batting performances continue with Sabbhineni Meghana starting out with a quick 61 runs in 41 deliveries. 17-year-old phenom Shafali Verma joined her with her own half-century for the opening wicket. While the middle-order started to slow down, Deepti Sharma had a crucial 69-run knock that allowed India to set a solid total of 279.

India’s bowling got off to a great start with captain Sophie Devine falling to an LBW without scoring a single run. Suzie Bates followed soon after and NZ were 14-2 after Jhulan Goswami’s first two overs. However, series standout Amelia Kerr started a charge from NZ to get back in the game. She was flanked with multiple half-centurions like Amy Satterthwaite and Lauren Down, with Katey Martin putting on a good show as well. Lauren Down finished the game off in style with a massive six, as India fell to their fourth consecutive loss in New Zealand.

Indian coach Ramesh Powar had this to say about the team’s performance

“When we assess these ODIs and T20s, we only had three days of practice sessions. I have to give it to the players as in such less time, you cannot get into a competitive series against someone like New Zealand. There is going to be some rustiness and a lot of things have been discussed. Going forward, in bowling we are trying to address the middle overs so we can take wickets.

A couple of hundred-run partnerships in ODIs against us and we want to break that jinx and take wickets in the middle overs. I have to give it to the players as they have tried their best. But due to limited practices, the COVID situation, quarantines, I think we are on the right track. The batting has clicked.”