The Women in Blue set their sights on the maiden Women's World Cup tittle, Indian skipper Mithali Raj won the toss and opted to bat against Pakistan in their opening fixture of the Women's World Cup 2022 at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui on Sunday (March 6).
"We'll bat. It's a good wicket to bat. put up a big total and put pressure on them. We're going with three seamers and three spinners. We want to go into the tournament with a clean slate, take some momentum from the last game which we won against New Zealand. The hunger to do well in WCs has kept me going," Mithali Raj said before the match.
"We wanted to bowl first, we now need to restrict them. We are going into the match with five bowlers. We have had a good warm-up, so we need to continue playing like that. I'm blessed to be back doing what I love, and getting some real support from the entire team," Pakistan skipper Bismah Maroof said.
India will be aiming to put on a good show against arch-rivals Pakistan and get their campaign off to a winning start. The Indian women's cricket team will hope its bowlers find top form to complement a solid batting unit's efforts. 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 are playing their last World Cup. A lot will depend on the start that the Indian team gets from its power-packed opening duo of Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana.
Pitch Report
It's the same pitch that was used for the first match, so the dimensions are the same. There is a bit more wind today though. It's another good batting strip, so help the spinners a bit later on. Hardly a cloud in the sky, should be plenty of runs on offer.
India Women's Playing XI: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Harmanpreet Kaur, Mithali Raj (c), Richa Ghosh (w), Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad.
Pakistan Women's Playing XI: Javeria Khan, Sidra Ameen, Bismah Maroof(c), Omaima Sohail, Nida Dar, Aliya Riaz, Fatima Sana, Sidra Nawaz(w), Diana Baig, Nashra Sandhu, Anam Amin.
