Indian team players during a practice session ahead of the 1st ODI against New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, Gujarat on Wednesday October 23, 2024.
| Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI
There was this tall, athletic woman from Auckland one came across on a chilly, windy afternoon at Wimbledon last week. Maree, in London to visit her daughter, has played competitive cricket back home, and she was talking, with a tinge of disappointment, about New Zealand’s underachievement despite producing champion cricketers like Martin Crowe.
Maree must be a happy woman now — after that Super Sunday for New Zealand cricket.
At Bengaluru, the men won a Test match for the first time in India in 36 years. A few hours later, across the Arabian Sea at Dubai, the women won the T20 World Cup, for the first time ever.
If the Arabian nights provided memories of a lifetime for New Zealand’s female cricketers, they were a nightmare for their Indian counterparts. The Women in Blue failed to make the semifinals.
India’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur during a practice session ahead of the 1st ODI between India and New Zealand women at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, Gujarat on Wednesday, October 23, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
VIJAY SONEJI
Their campaign had begun on the wrong foot, losing to New Zealand. It would prove costly in the end, as the Kiwis edged past India in the group and entered the last four.
Harmanpreet Kaur’s women have a chance for immediate revenge. They take on New Zealand in the first of a three-match ODI series here on Thursday.
It is not just the score from the T20 World Cup’s that the Indian women have to settle; they had been thrashed 4-1 when the two sides met in an ODI series. That was in New Zealand in early 2022.
Dipti Sharma during a practice session ahead of the 1st ODI between India and New Zealand women at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, Gujarat on Wednesday, October 23, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
VIJAY SONEJI
Amelia Kerr was the star of that big series win for the White Ferns. She had plundered 353 runs at an average of 117.66, with a hundred and three fifties.
And Kerr is still in a mood to hurt the Indians more. She was the player of the final and of the series at the T20 World Cup.
The 24-year-old leg-spinning all-rounder also has the WPL experience. As has captain Sophie Devine, whose explosive batting could worry any attack.
The Indian bowlers will also have to contend with Suzie Bates, New Zealand’s other hard-hitting veteran. The likes of Renuka Singh, Radha Yadav and Deepti Sharma have a task on their hands.
In skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues, there is class in the Indian batting line-up, though Richa Sharma will be missed. She is taking her school examinations.
Richa’s teammates face a sterner test.
The teams (from): India: Harmanpreet Kaur (Capt.), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, D. Hemalatha, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Yastika Bhatia, Uma Chetry, Sayali Satgare, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh, Tejal Hasabnis, Saima Thakor, Priya Mishra, Radha Yadav and Shreyanka Patil.
Women: Sophie Devine (Capt.), Suzie Bates, Eden Carson, Lauren Down, Izzy Gaze, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Polly Inglis, Fran Jonas, Jess Kerr, Amelia Kerr, Molly Penfold, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe and Lea Tahuhu.
Published – October 23, 2024 08:12 pm IST
