World Team TT C’ships: India women lose to China 2-3 in group 1 opener
At the World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals, each tie consists of a maximum of five singles matches. The first team to win three matches wins the tie.
India on Thursday inched past New Zealand by 3 runs in their nail-biting encounter at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. The win saw the Women in Blue becoming the first team to advance to the semifinals of the ongoing mega event.
Shafali Verma, who scored 46 off 34 balls, was declared the Player of the Match.
Getting an invitation to bat first, India scored 133 runs at the loss of 8 wickets in their allotted 20 overs at Junction Oval in Melbourne and held their nerves to register a slender win of 3 runs.
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The Harmanpreet Kaur-led team went all guns blazing and were good at one stage with 68 for 1 in 9 overs. But the latter half of the match saw India score only 65 runs in 66 balls and getting contented with a respectable total on the board.
Wickets fell in regular intervals for India and the players failed to stitch runs. Meanwhile, the New Zealand bowlers took toll of the opportunity and restricted India to low score. Amelia Kerr and Rosemary Mair claimed two wickets apiece to help New Zealand’s cause.
In their reply, the White Ferns found themselves reeling at 34 for 3 in 8.1 overs with skipper Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates back to the hut. However, Maddy Green (24) and Katey Martin (25) took the Kiwis out of hot waters.
Though Amelia Kerr’s 34 not out off 19 kept New Zealand in the hunt, they were the Indians who had the last laugh.
Here are the Playing XIs of both the teams:
New Zealand Women: Sophie Devine (c), Rachel Priest (w), Suzie Bates, Maddy Green, Katey Martin, Amelia Kerr, Hayley Jensen, Anna Peterson, Leigh Kasperek, Lea Tahuhu, Rosemary Mair
India Women: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Taniya Bhatia (w), Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Deepti Sharma, Veda Krishnamurthy, Shikha Pandey, Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad
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