New Delhi: Team India will take on Australia in their last group-stage fixture at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on October 13, Sunday. Harmanpreet and Co. lost their opening match of the tournament against New Zealand by 58 runs.
The Women in Blue made a stunning coming back and defeated arch-rivals Pakistan by six wickets. But it was the match against Asian champions Sri Lanka where Harmanpreet and Co. came out all guns blazing and recorded their biggest win in the history of the tournament. After the 82-run victory against Sri Lanka in Dubai, India’s net-run rate also improved from negative to +0.576.
But Australia are a different team altogether and India always finds it tough to beat seven-time T20 World Cup champions. The Women in Blue only managed to win just seven T20Is out of the 34 they played against the Aussies. In the T20 World Cup, Australia won 4 matches while India won only two.
Harmanpreet and Co. can get some motivation from the fact that they defeated Australia in the 2018 and 2020 group stage of the T20 World Cup. But, Team India hasn’t played a single match at Sharjah Cricket Stadium in this edition of the World Cup. The Women in Blue might go with an extra spinner at Sharjah, keeping the slow surface in mind.
On the other side, Australia are at the top of the Group A table, having won all three matches they have played so far. But there are some injury concerns in the Australian camp as pacer Tayla Vlaeminck dislocated her shoulder while fielding at third man and captain Alyssa Healy also sustained a foot injury while trying to complete the second run.
‘Just want to go there and play freely’: Harmanpreet Kaur
Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur in the pre-match press conference said that the team will go out and play freely as they want to enjoy the game. She further added that the team is not talking about the New Zealand vs Sri Lanka match and their focus is on the game against Australia.
“It’s a very important game for us … (there are a) lot of things we have to keep in mind and play and definitely going there you need a strong mindset. At the same time we just want to go there and play freely and enjoy our game” Harmanpreet Kaur said on Saturday.
“And after us, when New Zealand and Pakistan are playing, those things are not in our hand … we don’t even want to discuss those things. We just want to keep things simple and just focus on tomorrow’s game” she added.
Team India will take on Australia at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in Sharjah on Sunday, October 13. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
