India look to shake off rain-hit loss with series on the line

Chester-le-Street: Coming off a mediocre outing thanks to their injudicious shot selection in the testing conditions at Lord’s, India will have their task cut out when they face a rejuvenated England in the series-deciding third Women’s ODI here on Tuesday.

Visiting India produced a fine display with the bat to win the first match by four wickets but came a cropper in a rain-curtailed game in the British capital on Saturday to leave the three-match series evenly poised at 1-1 heading into the final ODI.

The series holds significance for both teams as the World Cup is scheduled to start in two months’ time. The marquee 50-over women’s tournament kickstarts on September 30, with five cities across Sri Lanka and India playing host.

India came into the second game with their nose ahead and were expected to grab the series due to their all-round strength and form of some big players. However, poor shot selection and an inability to adapt to the conditions spoiled their plans as they struggled to 143/8 batting first in a 29-overs-a-side contest.

The bowlers, too, failed as England’s top-order batters completed an easy chase with plenty of overs to spare.

Now, coming into the decider, India suddenly have a lot to ponder over.

Except for vice-captain Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma, their batters were found wanting against the likes of Sophie Ecclestone, Em Arlott and Linsey Smith at Lord’s and the bowling also failed to live up to the expectations.

With the accurate Ecclestone leading the way, the India batters struggled against the spinners especially, and they will certainly hope for a much better outing against the slow bowlers at Chester-le-Street.

India bat long but for the visitors to win the game and the series, they will need at least a couple of players from among Mandhana, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Pratika Rawal, and Harleen Deol to play big knocks with Richa Ghosh and Deepti providing them support lower down the order.

The team will be looking for early breakthroughs from the pacers before the spinners get into the act.