The Indian men’s team may have lost the Test series to New Zealand, but the Indian women’s team did not let this happen. In the third and deciding match of the ODI series against New Zealand, Team India defeated New Zealand by 6 wickets. With this, the Indian team won 2-1 in the 3-match series. Team vice-captain and veteran opener Smriti Mandhana proved to be the star of this match, who ended the drought of runs and scored the record 8th century of her ODI career. At the same time, captain Harmanpreet Kaur also took the lead in leading the team to victory by scoring an excellent half-century.
In the last match of this series played at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday 29 October, New Zealand batted first and the team could score only 232 runs in 50 overs. It was difficult for him to even reach here because only 5 wickets had fallen till 88 runs. Suzie Bates and captain Sophie Devine were out cheaply this time, while Georgia Plimmer (39)’s innings could not be very big.
In such a situation, Brook Halliday took charge and faced the Indian bowlers boldly. Battling the heat of Ahmedabad, Halliday could not complete her century and was out after scoring 86 runs (96 balls, 9 fours, 3 sixes). The lower order batsmen then somehow took the team to 232 runs. The Indian team, which made New Zealand’s path easier with its poor fielding in the last match, looked much better this time and took almost every catch, while also getting 2 run outs. Deepti Sharma took 3 wickets and young spinner Priya Mishra took 2 wickets.
Team India once again had a bad start but this time it was not Smriti Mandhana, but her opening partner Shafali Verma was out in the fourth over itself. Smriti, who failed in the T20 World Cup and the last two ODIs, decided to play cautiously this time and stand at the crease. He got good support from Yastika Bhatia and both of them handled the situation by making a strong partnership of 76 runs for the second wicket.
(News is being updated)
