Amelia Kerr, Amy Satterthwaite, Lea Tahuhu dismantle timid India
New Zealand rebound from their opening-day loss to notch up two successive wins
New Zealand rebound from their opening-day loss to notch up two successive wins
Scorer: M Venkat Raghav | Commentator: Vishal Dikshit
Mithali Raj: After the early wickets we got, the way they had a partnership I thought they'd get around 270-280. We thought it was chasable but provided we had the top order going. But back to back wickets put a lot of pressure because we did't have batter who can take it deep. There was bounce and it got slower in the second innings, their seamers were hitting the right areas with the bounce, but it wasn't unplayable and we could have done better. Our batting, especially the top and middle order needs to fire because other teams are posting 250-260. Our bowlers have done well today and earlier as well.
Sophie Devine: Really complete performance, we built partnerships throughout, Satterthwaite was outstanding, we laid the platform and we knew it was a good score. Our bowlers were outstanding, didn't give them anything. We have different people putting their hand up in different phases of the game, that's what we want in the World Cup. The girls were outstanding, we put a bit of pressure on them to make sure they stood up, Lea Tahuhu was outstanding even though she came as first change. Mackay adapted well [with new ball]. [On Tahuhu bowling in the middle phase] Certainly a role we saw her play last year in the UK. We've got so many options now to bowl, our spinners. We have got Fran Jonas on the sidelines as well, so to have those options, it means we are in a really good space. [This World Cup] is an interesting one, the first one was a great game of cricket, we took a lot of positives away. We would have liked to won but we knew we were close and we probably didn't play near our best. Tonight it was a much more complete performance.
Satterthwaite is the Player of the Match: I just tried to build an innings to set a platform to launch from. I was really disappointed in the first game and it was a real reflection to go back and look at the way I wanted to play. It was long enough to get us a total we needed today and our bowlers were exceptional.
Ashish: "@Vishal - You mentioned it as a Flat pitch. And I don't question the intent part, that was truly missing and this is a poor batting performance for sure. Just on the flat pitch part, was the pitch flat or was it slow? Cos a flat pitch guarantees runs. But a slow pitch might not help the bowlers much as well, but even the shot making gets difficult (But whatever the reason, Indian batters did not even try to make shots for first 40 overs)." It looked flat for sure, especially the way Harmanpreet hit out in the end, she was middling almost everything. It did slow down in the chase, but only a little bit.
Jai: "Mr. Powar has lot of work to do. I don't see any improvement even though Indian women get lot of exposure compared to some other teams. This is unacceptable."
Danial: "Lack of intent.. Top 4 scoring 70 in 150 balls (at strike rate of 50) for half of 300 balls.. and expecting 200 in another half? Shaifali need to be in there at the top!"
Arvi: "Had they only shown half of this intent in the middle overs ! Would have been a cracker of a contest! "
Ankur Kataria : "These late boundaries has saved the faced for India somewhat and also shown how bad was India's intent in first 25 overs."
Karthik : "India should have batted first after winning the toss, since they are not much comfortable in chasing.."
8.56pm A clinical performance by New Zealand, and a great show once again since their loss to West Indies. They would have wanted to post around 280 or more today, but they had to defend 260 on a flat pitch, where they opened with an offspinner against a left-handed top three, got their field placements right, used the experienced Tahuhu late, and made it a one-sided affair eventually. A lot of questions for India: where was the intent early on, do they want to look at their strike rotation, is No. 5 the right spot for Harmanpreet, do they want a pinch-hitter in the top four once in a while? A target of 260 was certainly gettable today but India didn't show any kind of intent at the start to make it a contest
RS Gayakwad c †Martin b Jensen 0 (2m 1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
Sushant: "I wonder where was this intent of batting for the first 40 overs when run rate didnt go beyond 3 rpo!"
J Goswami b Jensen 15 (24m 13b 1x4 1x6) SR: 115.38
Long-on is deep now
Mithali Raj and batting coach Shiv Sunder Das say as much after failed chase against New Zealand; Das also explains thinking behind dropping Shafali Verma
New Zealand rebound from their opening-day loss to notch up two successive wins
India have looked far better balanced since she took over the gloves, and her keeping is now matching up to her hitting