Women's World Cup: Lacklustre India Surrender To New Zealand By 62 Runs

An inept batting performance by India led to an all-too familiar surrender against New Zealand as the Mithali Raj-led side went down by 62 runs in its second league stage match of the ICC Women's World Cup here on Thursday

An inept batting performance by India led to an all-too familiar surrender against New Zealand as the Mithali Raj-led side went down by 62 runs in its second league stage match of the ICC Women's World Cup here on Thursday. New Zealand, who have dominated the Indians throughout this summer, didn't let anything change in a familiar script by first scoring a healthy 260 for 9. They then choked the 'Women in Blue' before bowling them out for only 198 in 46.4 overs.

India have now slipped to fifth among eight teams after this defeat while New Zealand, with two wins from three games, are now second behind Australia in the overall standings.

Puja Vastrakar's 4 for 34 in 10 overs and Harmanpreet Kaur's 71 off 62 balls were two isolated performances which hardly made any impact on the larger outcome.

While Vastrakar's four-for could still be credited for stopping New Zealand's total from going north of 280, Harmanpreet's runs might just help her regain confidence for the coming games.

Amelia Kerr (50 and 3/56 in 9 overs), one half of the famous Kerr sisters, first laid the platform with a solid half century and then breached the defences of rival skipper Mithali Raj (31 off 56 balls) with a flighted delivery.