Women's cricket team's big chase begins

Mount Maunganui, March 5

The Indian women’s cricket team would hope its bowlers find top form to complement a solid batting unit’s efforts when it begins the quest for an elusive ICC World Cup trophy with the opening match against arch-rivals Pakistan here tomorrow.

Runners up in the 2017 and 2005 editions, India are eager to go one step ahead and claim the title that has eluded them, especially skipper Mithali Raj and veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami, who will be playing their last World Cup.

The Indian team reached New Zealand a month earlier in order to acclimatise to the conditions.

However, the bowlers struggled compared to the batting unit, which managed to score in excess of 250 runs five times in the seven 50-over outings, including two warm-up matches.

The bowling unit was a sore sight throughout the series against New Zealand, which India lost 1-4. The bowlers failed to defend 270-plus targets in two games, while conceding a mammoth 191 in 20 overs in a rain-curtailed match of the ODI series.

They did put up an improved performance in the fifth ODI and the two warm-up games and Raj is hoping that both the batting and bowling units can fire in unison. “From the past series or the warm-up games, all we can take is confidence, and how you negotiate the conditions in the middle, how you play according to the situation is just very important,” Raj said. —