ICC Women World Cup 2022: The batting needs to step up – Mithali Raj after loss against New Zealand

Indian captain Mithali Raj admitted that the batting let the team down in their second match of the ongoing ICC Women World Cup 2022 against hosts New Zealand at Seddon Park, Hamilton on Thursday.

The Kiwis posted a par score of 260 runs on the board after Raj won the toss and decided to bowl first.

Sophie Devine gave a quick start to her team as she scored 35 runs from 30. Subsequently, Amelia Kerr scored 50 runs whereas Amy Satterthwaite scored a fine knock of 75 runs from 84 balls with the help of nine fours. Satterthwaite was awarded the Player of the Match.

But the Indian batting could not get going as they were skittled out for a paltry score of 198 runs. Apart from Harmanpreet Singh, who scored 71 runs from 63 balls, none of the Indian batters could get going in the run-chase as New Zealand dominated the contest to win by a big margin of 62 runs.

Yastika Bhatia and Mithali Raj got off to starts but could not convert them into a substantial score.

Raj feels the bowling line-up did a good job to restrict New Zealand at 260 but the batting needs to get better in the upcoming matches. Pooja Vastrakar was the pick of the Indian bowlers as she returned with impressive figures of 4-34 in her quota of 10 overs.

Mithali Raj said in the post-match presentation, “I think after those early wickets, they got a good partnership going and it seemed like 280 would be on the cards. But we did well to pull things back at the end. It was a chaseable score, provided the top order managed the run rate properly. We needed one of the batters to bat deep. There was a lot of extra bounce under lights, nothing unplayable but we could have done better. The batting needs to get better. The bowlers have done well today, they did well last game too. The batting has to step up.”

India will need to come up with better batting performance in the forthcoming matches. Furthermore, Women in Blue will need to score at a better run-rate to keep themselves in the match.

India will next face West Indies women at the same venue of Seddon Park, Hamilton on Saturday.