India eye running start

Visakhapatnam: India’s top-order batters will have to shed their diffident ways against a rejuvenated South Africa to instil more momentum into their slow-brewing ICC Women’s World Cup campaign here on Thursday.

A glance at the points table will show India’s comfortable second position — the hosts slipped to third ater Australia beat Pakistan on Wednesday in Colombo — with two wins from as many games.

But beneath that glossy exterior, India have a mounting worry in the lack of runs so far from talismanic Smriti Mandhana, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and the energetic Jemimah Rodrigues.

The troika faltered against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, forcing India to rely on the second line in Harleen Deol, Amanjot Kaur, Richa Ghosh and Deepti Sharma for the rescue act.

India were 124/6 against Lanka and 159/5 against Pakistan, and each of those situations could have been more perilous if the late order batters were not able to guts it out in the middle.

A repetition of the script will be disastrous against a more well-equipped side like South Africa, and India need a heftier contribution from their star triumvirate in this game.

If the result does not go in India’s favour, it will not only endanger their position on the points table, but will push them to a tighter corner against champions Australia on October 12.

Of course, the Indian management will see the positive side in the outings so far, winning without a major hand from its star batters and might perceive it as the presence of multiple match-winners .

But deep down, they will also accept the need for runs from Mandhana, Harmanpreet and Rodrigues that can be the difference between a good total and winning total against top sides like South Africa or Australia.

But on the other hand, the bowlers have delivered consistently so far for India.

However, they will have to be aware that the ACA-VDCA stadium pitch here might not offer a similar level of bite as the tracks in Guwahati and Colombo.

‘Scary India’

Rodrigues said it might be “scary” for the opponents to see India remain on the winning side in the ongoing World Cup without producing a “perfect game” so far, and she was delighted to see the emergence of new match-winners.

India were in a spot of bother against both Sri Lanka and Pakistan but late-order fight back helped the hosts to wriggle out.

“It’s scary for the opponents to know that we have not had our perfect match yet, but we are still on the winning streak. We are still waiting for that perfect match to come and I think in such tournaments, because it’s so long, it’s important to peak at the right time,” said Rodrigues on the

eve of their match.