Indian women have the daunting task of winning their final match against world champions Australia on Saturday to progress.
CHENNAI: Indian women have the daunting task of winning their sixth and final robin league match against world champions Australia on Saturday to progress to the title clash as they were beaten badly by 91 runs by New Zealand in their fifth league tie of the four-nation tournament here on Thursday.
Put in to bat, New Zealand made a modest 272 for 7 in 50 overs and restricted India to 181 for 8 in 50 overs for full five points (including a bonus), while Austraila, having lost their first two matches, continued their fine rally to be in second position with a confident six wicket win over lowly England, who have lost all their five matches so far.
New Zealand maintained a clean slate for 17 points from five matches, while Australia tallied 14 as against India's 13 points from as many matches.
Opting to field, Australia allowed England to make 268 for 8 in 50 overs with opener Sarah Taylor coming up with a superb 101 and then made light work of the target before romping home 269 for four in 46.4 overs.
The Aussies achieved the target with out much ado thanks to two valuable stands of 71 runs between Captain Karen Rolton (55-5x4) and Sthalekar (77-8x4, 1x6) for the third wicket and another 75 runs of 60 balls for the fourth wicket between Lisa Sthalekar and Kate Blackwell (40 not out). All-rounder Shelly Nitchske, who claimed 2 for 74 in ten overs and made 21 valuble runs, was declared Eve of the Match.
India's decision to put the visitors bat first proved costly as opener Suzie Bates, who top scored with a fluent 122 (134b-12x4), put on two useful parnerships of 102 for the second wicket with her captin, Haidee Tiffen (34-3x4) and 104 off just of 102 balls for the thrid wicket with wicketkeeper Rabecca Rolls (58-54b, 4x4, 1x6).
For India, left-arm spinner Priti Dimri (2 for 57) and medium pacer Jhulan Goswami (2 for 43) were the main wicket takers.
In reply, India were heading towards a solid foundation with the openers Karuna Jain and Jaya Sharma playing well but the former was ran out in unfortunate circumstances by Haidee Tiffen. Jain made 13 and India were 55 for one.
After Jaya Sharma (29) and Mithali Raj (31) were back in the pavilion, India lost wickets at regular intervals and were 138 for 8 in 42 overs before Jhulan Goswami (27) and Nooshin al Khadeep (19) played through the remaining eight overs adding 43 runs for the unbroken ninth wicket.
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