- The Indian women's cricket team beat New Zealand to qualify for the ODI World Cup 2025 semi-finals
- Captain Harmanpreet Kaur praised the team's batters for their performance but confessed to feeling anxious before the semi-finals
The women's cricket team in India triumphed against New Zealand to advance to the ODI World Cup 2025 semi-finals.
The victory marked a moment of pride and poise for the team after they had lost three matches prior. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur stated that it was due to the outstanding contributions from the batters, although she did say she was indeed nervous, prior to discussing the team’s success.
India batted first scoring 340 runs for three wickets in 49 overs. Due to rain, New Zealand were set a revised target of 325 runs in 44 overs but only managed 271 runs for eight wickets.
Openers Pratika Raval and Smriti Mandhana both scored centuries amassing a partnership of 212 runs for the first wicket. Pratika scored 122 runs from 134 balls hitting 13 fours and two sixes, whilst Mandhana scored a 109 off 95 along with 10 fours and 4 sixes.
Jemimah Rodrigues, batting at number three, was left not out, scoring 76 runs from 55 balls, including 11 fours.
"In terms of forming good partnerships, we did a fair job in the top three. I think we were able to maybe develop an idea of what works at the World Cup. Pratika and Smriti are the ones who are to be credited with the scores. When they reached the 200 mark, we decided a chance was arriving Jemimah came into number three and delivered what was asked of her."
Even with the win, Indian bowling has been lackluster. In Harmanpreet's words, "Batting has been well done; the bowling unit needs to be improved. When we bat well hopefully we can become more of a team in the next game."
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