Indian women’s team won the fifth and final ODI match of the series against New Zealand by 6 wickets and avoided a humiliating whitewash but this victory was not enough to thwart them from conceding the fourth series defeat in last one year. Previously, Indian women’s team were defeated by Australia, England and South Africa.
India’s Harmanpreet Kaur was not in a pretty good form in the series but in the final ODI she scored a half-century to help her side in successfully reaching the target against the hosts New Zealand, on February 24 (Thursday).
New Zealand batting first
Earlier, New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine had won the toss and decided to bat first and the decision initially seemed to pay off as the hosts managed to reach a solid total of 251 runs losing 9 wickets.
Skipper Devine started the batting on a positive note after she notched 34 runs off 41 balls. Later, Amelia Kerr showed terrific batting skills as she scored 66 runs off 75 balls. Her innings was comprised of 6 boundaries.
Later, Lauren Down (30 runs off 37 balls) and Hayley Jensen (30 runs off 33 deliveries) scored some important runs for their side.
For the Indian team, their bowlers Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Deepti Sharma and Sneh Rana picked up two wickets each. Other Indian bowlers- Meghna Singh and Poonam Yadav bagged one wicket each.
India's run-chase
In reply, Indian team lost an early wicket as opener Shafali Verma (9 runs off 11 balls) was sent back to the dressing room in the fifth over of the innings. Shafali’s poor show in the ODI continued as she could manage to notch only one fifty in the series and was out for a duck in the fourth ODI.
But the other opening batter Smriti Mandhana (71 runs off 81 balls) and skipper Mithali Raj (59 runs not out off 73 balls) played in a superb fashion to avert the early danger.
Later, Harmanpreet Kaur scored 63 runs to help the Indian team in securing a much-needed victory.
For Harmanpreet, a good innings was very much needed as in the first three ODIs she just scored 33 runs and the vice-captain was not kept in the squad for the fourth ODI.
