Mirpur: Struggling with the bat the Indian women’s cricket team will still be aiming to make a 3-0 clean sweep over the host Bangladesh, when the two teams will face each other in the final match of the T20 International series.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur-led team India has subdued the host in the first two matches of the T20I series with ease and will like to seal the series on a winning note before moving on to the ODI series.
However, the performance of the Indian top order with the bat has been quite ordinary if not mediocre, especially in the second match where the Indian team was only able to make 95 in their given 20 overs though they still managed to win the match by a margin of 8 runs.
Not so amused with their own performance in the second encounter, the host Bangladeshi women’s team will also be looking to end the series with a win in their bucket, avoiding the threat of a whitewash on their home turf.
Indian opener Shafali Verma will be under the lens of the selectors once again after her underwhelming performance in the series.
Though the youngster’s 14-ball 19 eventually turned out to be the highest score in the team’s unforgettable collapse, the batter is well aware of expectations of the management from her. The last T20I will be a perfect opportunity for the batter to get back among big runs before the ODI leg of the tour starting July 16.
Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana will also be keen to get going after getting dismissed for a run-a-ball 13 Tuesday.
The Indian openers have failed to fire together in the series so far and will be gunning to make use of another opportunity that awaits them Thursday.
So is the case of Jemimah Rodrigues, who also could not get going and struggled a lot in the middle while consuming as many as 21 balls for her eight runs.
Out for a first-ball duck two days after her match-winning knock in the series opener, skipper Harmanpreet would not look to read too much into her failure Tuesday and would rather see it as an exception.
Even as the batters endured the kind of outing they would like to forget in a hurry, the Indian bowlers will enter the final T20I high on morale.
Defending 96, the likes of Deepti Sharma, Minnu Mani, 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, their 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.
Teams (from):
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Harleen Deol, Devika Vaidya, Uma Chhetri (wk), Amanjot Kaur, S Meghna, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Anjali Sarwani , Monika Patel, Rashi Kanojia, Anusha Bareddi, Minnu Mani.
Bangladesh: Nigar Sultana (c/w), Shamima Sultana, Murshida Khatun, Sobhana Mostary, Shorna Akter, Ritu Moni, Nahida Akter, Fahima Khatun, Rabeya Khan, Shanjida Akter, Salma Khatun, Marufa Akter, Dilara Akter, Disha Biswas, Sultana Khatun, Shathi Rani.
Match Starts: 1:30 pm IST.
PTI
