Mithali Raj feels beating Australia in Semi-final will be an exceptional achievment
Jul 19, 2017 at 6:35 PM
Indian Women’s team captain Mithali Raj is optimistic about her team’s chances ahead of the semi final clash against Australia and said that it would be exceptional for her team if they manage to pull off a victory against the mighty Aussies tomorrow. The skipper has been in sensational form in the tournament so far and has amassed 356 runs in 7 matches.
It was in the group game against Australia that Raj became the leading woman run scorer in ODI cricket and also became the first woman to accumulate 6,000 ODI runs. Despite losing that match, Raj knows that it will count for very less tomorrow when they lock horns with the Meg Lanning led Australian side.
The Women in Blue have won all the 4 group games played at the County Ground including the opening game against hosts England.
“It’s all about how the teams respond to the situation and the conditions on the day,” Raj said.
“How the players play the situation is important because having said that Derby is our home ground, you need to perform on that day to win. We’ve played a lot of the group stage here, four games, so we are aware of the conditions and that is our advantage.”
The Australian team who has won 6 out of the previous 10 editions of the World Cup has an exceptional record against the Blue brigade with a 34-8 win loss ratio and the Woman in Blue will be well aware of the fact that they have to produce their best game of the tournament to harbour any hopes of playing the final against hosts England.
“But Australia is a very good side. They won the last edition of this tournament and they have a lot of players who have played in high-pressure games. But for this Indian team, it is going to be a big game and if we can pull out one win, it will be exceptional by the team,” Raj opined.
Squads:
Australia: Meg Lanning (captain), Sarah Aley, Kristen Beams, Alex Blackwell, Nicole Bolton, Ashleigh Gardner, Rachael Haynes, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Belinda Vakarewa, Elyse Villani and Amanda-Jade Wellington.
India: Mithali Raj (captain), Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Mansi Joshi, Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy, Smriti Mandhana, Mona Meshram, Shikha Pandey, Poonam, Nuzhat Parween, Poonam Raut, Deepti Sharma and Sushma Verma.