India find themselves in a do-or-die situation as they take on formidable West Indies in a group match of the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 at the I.S. Bindra stadium in Mohali on Sunday.
Both India and West Indies come into this match after having tasted defeats at the hands of England at Dharamsala.
Among the two teams, worries would be more on Indian women’s plate as their batters let them down in their previous game, while West Indies lost narrowly.
In Group B, England women lead the points table with three wins from as many matches. India have won just one against Bangladesh, which was a convincing one, but lost to Pakistan by just two runs via Duckworth/Lewis method and suffered another loss to England.
West Indies eves have two wins from three encounters, one against Pakistan and another one against Bangladesh. Pakistan has two wins from three games while Bangladesh has lost all four matches.
India are wary of the situation as they need a massive victory to improve the net run rate and then depend on the outcome of other matches to harbour semifinal hopes.
A defeat on Sunday would throw the home team out of the competition and the Mithali Raj-led side would hope to put their best foot forward against the West Indies eves.
Unlike the previous edition, where Indian women were ousted in the group stages, they emerged as strong contender this time around courtesy their recent good showing in the T20 format, including a historic 2-1 away series win over mighty Australia in January followed by the 3-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka in the run-up to the ongoing World T20.
In their last match against England, India could manage only 90 runs batting first. Batting department is a matter of concern and even the skipper acknowledged it.
The likes of Mithali Raj, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy are capable of getting the better of any side if they fire in unison.
The bowling attack spearheaded by veteran Jhulan Goswami is also expected to come good. Ekta Bisht and Harmanpreet Kaur were the pick among the bowlers in the previous game.
Addressing a press conference in Mohali on Saturday, Mithali Raj admitted that batting will have to come good.
“We expect better performance from the batting unit,” she said.
“As a team, when we are bowling and fielding, we look very good. But somewhere we need to work more as a batting unit,” Raj said.
Replying to a question, she said, “Against England we thought we could have done better, we will try not to repeat in tomorrow’s game the mistakes we made earlier. The girls do realise that every match is important in the World Cup. We have got some slip-ups and we have got another opportunity to make do with it. So, it is very important for us.”
Asked if there was too much pressure on the shoulders of senior players like her, she replied, “I personally feel one player cannot get you a World Cup, may be one or two games we can win. But to win a big event, you really need everybody at certain stage to stand up and deliver for the team. The pressure definitely is on us as senior players to get the team going, but there are other players who will also be equally important.”
West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor, meanwhile, said they will try to put the best foot forward.
“We are looking to win and everyone will try their best,” she said, adding “tomorrow’s game is very important, it is a do-or-die kind of situation.”
Apart from Taylor, West Indies have players like Hayley Matthews, Shaquana Quintyne, Shamilia Connell and Anisa Mohammed in their side.
