I’m blessed to have these kind of openers: Mithali Raj

The Indian Women’s team has been doing a wonderful job in the WWC 2017. In their fourth game of the tournament, the eves beat Sri Lanka to register yet another comprehensive win. Both the Indian openers failed for the first time and it was time for the middle order to step up. Captain Mithali Raj and Deepti Sharma did extremely well to take India to a defendable score. They put up 232 in their 50 overs leaving Sri Lanka a modest total to chase.

However, their bowlers have come to the party each time stumbling the opposition on wickets that have been slow. Having posted 169 runs against Pakistan though it didn’t appear to be the mightiest of the scores but the way India defended it described the potential this bowling unit to a great extent.

In this game as well the Indian slow bowlers were able to choke the flow of runs bowl dot balls and maidens piling up the pressure crackled the wickets. Though the Sri Lankans gave them a stiff fight Jhulan Goswami & Co. were able to defend 232 by 16 runs in the end. Deepti having scored 78 runs also picked up a wicket with the ball and was the obvious choice for the Player of the Match award.

Mithali happy with the win

The Indian skipper has been captaining the team to a phenomenal world cup campaign thus far in WWC 2017. She has a fantastic squad and they can surely go the distance. The Indian team currently sits second after winning four out of four games, with Australia on the top based on their Net Run Rate.

Mithali scored 53 runs off 78 balls and stitched an excellent partnership with Sharma. After the game, she talked about having all-rounders in the team and how it helps when there are good openers batting before you.

“In the middle overs we really pulled ourselves and the dot balls pushed them to score in the end. Overall, our spinners did quite well. Cricket has evolved over the years because now we need to have more allrounders, with bowlers who can bat in the slog overs and batsmen who can pick some wickets. I’ve always enjoyed batting and stepping up when it’s required. I’m blessed to have the kind of openers and I can play probably a bit of my own game which I’ve had to hold up because of the kind of the responsibility I’ve had over the years,” she said in the post-match presentation.

Deepti Sharma has her say

Deepti played a masterful inning to shake off the early hurricane from the Sri Lankan bowlers. Along with the skipper, she batted Team India out of trouble. She read the sluggish pitch and batted accordingly. She managed to time the ball well and in front of the wicket. After being awarded the PoM Deepti also talked about her understanding with her skipper.

“The wicket was a bit slow when I batted so I adjusted accordingly by taking my time and it paid off. I tried to time my straight-bat shots properly instead of hitting them hard. I work hard in the gym so that’s where I get my strength from. We usually run the first one hard, that’s the thinking between me and Mithali, so running the second helps,” she said.