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Amelia Kerr displayed an top-notch all-round show as New Zealand piled misery on India with 63-run victory in the fourth ODI match on Tuesday (February 22). Even Richa Ghosh's sensational 52-run knock couldn't save India from their fourth consecutive defeat in five-match ODI series.
Amelia smashed 68 off mere 33 balls with the help of 11 fours and 1 six as the White Ferns posted 191/5 against India. Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine also played useful innings of 41 and 32 as the White Ferns posted a score of more than the 190-run mark in the rain delayed match that saw the game reduced to a 20-over shootout.
In reply, India could only manage to score 128 before going down to New Zealand as Richa remained the lone performer for the Women in Blue with a splendid 52 off 29. With this she recorded the fastest fifty by an Indian batter in women's ODI cricket. She brought up her fifty off just 26 balls with the help of four boundaries and four sixes.
Amelia shone with the ball too where she scalped 3/30 in a spell of 3.5 overs to emerge the Player of the Match.
New Zealand started on a rousing note with a 53-run opening stand between Sophie Devine (32 of 24 balls) and Suzie Bates (41 off 26 balls).
Once the platform was laid, Amelia and Amy Satterthwaite (32 off 16 balls) literally pummelled the Indian bowling.
The bowling performance of the Indians seemed to have nose-dived with each passing game and it was the worst on Tuesday where only Rajeshwari Gayakwad (4-0-26-1) looked the part.
Meghna Singh (1/45 in 4 overs) and Deepti Sharma (1/49 in 4 overs) were two bowlers taken to the cleaners by Amelia who had 11 fours and a six in her kitty.
A chase of 192 was always going to be a tough ask even though the out of form Harmanpreet Kaur was dropped from the playing eleven.
Smriti Mandhana very understandably was out of rhythm after a long and hard quarantine and youngsters Shafali Verma (0) and Yastika Bhatia (0) were out in quick succession.
By the fifth over India were already reduced to 19/4.
Richa and skipper Mithali Raj (30 off 28 ) added 67 runs but it was in a lost cause as wickets fell at regular interval.
Amelia's sister Jess also got two wickets upfront while Francis Mackay and Heley Jensen shared the spoils with two and three wickets respectively.
The only time India had something to cheer about was when Richa clobbered the White Ferns bowlers for four huge sixes and four boundaries while Mithali played the second fiddle.
Once Richa was gone, the stomach for fight wasn't evident in others as six wickets fell for 32 runs. Things are not looking good at all for the Mithali-led India with only two weeks left for the World Cup to start.
