Sports Desk

India Women’s vs South Africa Women’s; three match ODI series starts tomorrow

The 3 match ODI series   between India Women vs South Africa Women will start from tomorrow. India will play three ODIs against South Africa as part of the ICC Women’s Championship (2017-2020) in February. This series will be the start of the ICC Women’s Championship (2017-20) for India.

India Women vs South Africa Women

Mithali Raj and her team had not played any International game since ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 Finals against England Women which they lost by 9 runs.

While India finished runners-up in the World Cup, but when last time these two team met was in the World Cup League stage; South Africa women crushed India Women’s by 115 runs.

With women’s cricket being strongly followed after World Cup, Mithali knows that their accountability has increased in various aspects.

“Every match will be scrutinized by people, by the critics, by everybody, because now people have seen the actual standard of women’s cricket and the Indian team,” Mithali said.

“So, yes, from now on whatever matches that we get to play, will be closely watched by all of them (and) followed by all the cricket fanatic people in our country as well as around the world,” she added.

“I am eager to get back to playing international cricket. It has been a while since the World Cup and the South Africa tour will be the first once since. It is good to play against good sides in challenging conditions because it gets the best out of a side which is trying to improve,” she said.

Indian squad doesn’t have any major changes from the World Cup; apart from 17 year old Jemimah Rodrigues has been included in the squad. She is been in superb form this season; she has scored 1013 runs and six centuries from 11 matches in the women’s under-19 one-day league and knock-out. 

“I cannot believe it’s already been six months, feels like yesterday,” remarked South Africa’s 24-year-old captain Dane van Niekerk, adding: “It’s honestly still very raw for me personally; I think it’ll be for a while. I’m sure for most of our players it’s the same.”

Van Niekerk, is the ninth-ranked bowler in the world, she further added: “It is a fresh start for us as a very tight unit. We don’t want to go through the qualifiers again and that means we need to hit the ground running from game one.” Mithali concurred with her opposite number.

“It is important to get points under our belt, so the three ODIs are going to be very important because it is a fresh start to the ICC Women’s Championship.

“We definitely are looking forward to being in the top four, so that we get a direct entry; that’s our aim. But to get there I think it is important that we get as many points as we can.”

“For us, the build-up and preparations for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2021 starts in South Africa. The more ODIs we will play in these two-three years, the more they will give a sense of how the players and the team are shaping.”

Mithali Said She wants develop one thing in her team is that bowlers need to bat little bit

“I think the first thing is definitely that the bowlers need to bat. That is something I would consider very important. I would want all my bowlers to contribute (with the bat) in the lower-order.”

India Women Schedule vs South Africa Women:

Date Match Venue 
5 Feb 2018, 13:30 IST IND-W v SA-W Diamond Oval, Kimberley
7 Feb 2018, 13:30 IST IND-W v SA-W Diamond Oval, Kimberley
10 Feb 2018, 13:30 IST IND-W v SA-W Senwes Park, Potchefstroom

 

Teams:

India: Mithali Raj (captain), Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Veda Krishnamurthy, Smriti Mandhana, Mona Meshram, Shikha Pandey, Punam Raut, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Sushma Verma (wicket-keeper) and Poonam Yadav.

South Africa: Dane van Niekerk (capt), Marizanne Kapp, Trisha Chetty, Shabnim Ismail, Ayabonga Khaka, Masabata Klaas, Sune Luus, Laura Wolvaardt, Mignon du Preez, Lizelle Lee, Chloe Tryon, Andrie Steyn, Raisibe Ntozakhe and Zintle Mali.

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *