Indian eves seek two more crucial World Cup qualification points
Mithali Raj-led Indian women's cricket team will be hoping to gain a series whitewash against England when they take on the visitors in the third ODI on Thursday. India lead 2-0 in the series and will not want to try out anything fancy. There is plenty at stake for India, who want crucial points in direct qualification for the 2021 World Cup.
Notably, India grabbed four crucial points in the ICC Women's Championship with the race for qualification heating up. India will be wanting to grab two more points given the fact that they are unlikely to play against Pakistan in this qualification cycle. This will lead to forfeiture of six points. In the ICC Women's Championship standings, India are placed second with 16 points.
India will depend on in-form batswomen Smriti Mandhana and skipper Mithali Raj. Mandhana slammed a classy 63 in the last game to help India clinch the series. Raj, who is the leading run-getter in ODIs, amassed 44 and 47 in the last two games. The onus will be on these two star players to gain authority.
The Indian bowlers - both seamers and spinners - have been in some rich vein of form. Veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami and Shikha Pandey have 11 wickets between them in the series. They have troubled the visitors in the first two games at the Wankhede. Indian spin trio of Deepti Sharma, Poonam Yadav and Ekta Bisht have choked England in middle overs.
England have plenty of issues at the moment. All-rounder Sophie Ecclestone suffered a fractured hand and was ruled out of the third ODI and remainder of the tour. England will be aiming to bag two crucial points on offer as part of the ICC Championship. Besides Natalie Sciver and skipper Heather Knight, the batswomen have struggled to find momentum.
The third ODI will start at 9:00 AM IST. One can watch the match live on Star Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 1 HD. The match can also be streamed live on Hotstar. Post this, the two sides will meet in the T20Is.
