Taunton: Indian team will expect more from the dependable duo of Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh as it aims to sort out its middle order woes going into the third and final women’s T20 International against hosts England here on Tuesday.
With the series locked at 1-1, a victory in the decider will not just be another overseas bilateral win but a shot in the arm for either team before the start of the Women’s T20 World Cup later this month.
For India, this series is also the dress rehearsal to check out the ideal combinations based on English conditions going into the marquee event.
In the first couple of games, Yastika Bhatia with a half-century and a 30 odd has by far looked the best batter. Jemimah Rodrigues also got a fifty while the elegant Smriti Mandhana and destructive Shafali Verma got starts in the second match.
However, in both games India lost momentum towards the last five overs and the big-hitter Richa hasn’t exactly fired in both games.
In the first game, fabulous batting by Bhatia and Rodrigues had ensured that India ended up with a healthy 188/7 despite only 40 runs being scored between overs 16 and 20.
In the second game, India were sitting pretty at 70 for 1 in a chase of 169 but it was an unmitigated disaster between overs 16 and 20 when they were reduced to 28 for five.
Save Richa, there aren’t many six-hitters and skipper Harmanpreet, who is perhaps the cleanest aerial hitter in the team, will have to take the onus of batting till the end of 20 overs and take the total closer to 190-200, which is eight out of ten times a winning score in women’s cricket.
For England also, batting has been a concern, as Amy Jones’ 67 is the only half-century across two games while most of the other seasoned batters got starts but couldn’t carry on with the momentum for sustained periods of time.
