A confident Indian women's cricket team will look to seal a place in the Women's Asia Cup semi-finals by registering a win against the United Arab Emirates on Sunday. Defending champions India defeated arch-rivals Pakistan by seven wickets on Saturday. UAE will have to perform miraculously to defeat Harmanpreet Kaur's team.
India currently has two points and a net run rate of plus 2.29 and defeating Emirates will give it four points. Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh and Pooja Vastrakar bowled well against Pakistan. The team management will also expect a good performance from left-arm spinner Radha Yadav, who has made a comeback through the home series against South Africa. Renuka said in the press conference after the match, “It was a good spell and the weather also helped. The way I am practicing in the nets, I was able to repeat it in the match as well.”
The Indian batsmen performed aggressively and won the match with 35 balls to spare. Openers Shefali Verma and Smriti Mandhana shared an 85-run partnership in 9.3 overs. After this, India lost three wickets quickly. The Indian camp would be hoping for a good performance from the middle-order batsmen against the UAE. The Asia Cup is considered important for the preparation for the T20 World Cup to be held in Bangladesh in October.
Renuka said, “Asia Cup is important because after this we will not have to play many matches before the T20 World Cup. The situation will be similar in Bangladesh, so this tournament will help us a lot.” In the second match, Pakistan will face Nepal.
Teams:
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shefali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Uma Chhetri, Pooja Vastrakar, Deepti Sharma, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh, D Hemalatha, Asha Shobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Sanjivan Sajana.
UAE: Esha Rohit Ojha (captain), Kavisha Kumari, Ritika Rajat, Samaira D, Lavanya Kenny, Emily Thomas, Heena Hochandani, Mahak Thakur, Induja Nandakumar, Rinita Rajat, Khushi Mohan Sharma, Rishita Rajat, Suraksha Kotte, T Sathish, Vaishnavi Mahesh.