India hopes to bounce back against Australia

With its four-match unbeaten streak brought to a halt, India will be keen to bounce back and take a step towards securing a semifinals spot when it takes on Australia in the ICC Women’s World Cup here on Wednesday.

India skipper Mithali Raj will be hoping that her team returns to winning ways.

With its four-match unbeaten streak brought to a halt, India will be keen to bounce back and take a step towards securing a semifinals spot when it takes on Australia in the ICC Women’s World Cup here on Wednesday.

India was on a dream run beating England, West Indies, Pakistan and Sri Lanka before South Africa disturbed its momentum with a massive win.

Similarly Australia’s unbeaten run was stopped by England in the previous game and it would also look to get back to winning ways.

Neither of the teams have yet qualified for the semifinals but Australia is in a better position by virtue of a strong net run-rate. The Aussies lost to England by just three runs, while India was defeated by a huge margin.

In the previous game against South Africa, India had a great chance of sealing a semifinal berth but now it has its task cut out in the remaining round robin games against two strong teams in Australia and New Zealand.

India’s record against Australia is not great with eight wins in 41 completed matches, but skipper Mithali Raj’s 89 set up a five-wicket win the last time the teams met.

They would expect the likes of in-form Smriti Mandhana, Punam Raut and Harmanpreet Kaur, besides Deepti and Mithali to fire in unison against the Australians.

For Australia, this game is a return to Bristol where England sneaked a three-run win and skipper Meg Lanning said they would have to bounce back quickly and put on a strong performance.

“Against England was not our best performance with the ball but hopefully we can learn from that pretty quickly and come back for India,” said Lanning.