Women's World T20 Cup

9th Match: IND-W vs WI-W

Preview

India women started their World T20 Championship 2023 campaign with an exciting win against their arch-rivals Pakistan. IND-W are now placed in the 2nd spot of the Group B points table, just below ENG-W with an NRR of +0.497. India will next face West Indies Women on February 15 at the Newlands in Cape Town. West Indies are currently going through a bad phase in T20Is and will find it tough to go against a in-form Women in Blue.

India Women recorded the second-highest chase in the Women’s World T20 Championship history by successfully chasing a target of 150 runs against Pakistan Women with one over to spare. Jemimah Rodrigues was going through a lean phase before the World Championship but in the match against Pakistan, she played an unbeaten knock of 53 runs off 38 balls, also Richa Ghosh scored 31* runs off just 20 balls which pocketed the match for the Indian side. Richa is in a good state and her small but crucial knocks mesmerize the fans with her big-hitting capability. Also, the Indian side will be more stronger than before as Smiti Mandana is expected to make a comeback after an injury which made her miss the first match against Pakistan.

India’s bowling has been a bit out of track as seen in the latter half of the first innings against Pakistan. Deepti Sharma went for an expensive 39 runs off her 4 overs picking just one wicket. In spite of a downgrade performance, the off-spinner is India’s most crucial bowler in this competition. Left-arm spinner Radha Yadav was quite impressive as she took 2 wickets giving away just 21 runs.

On the other side, West Indies Women are having a bad time in T20Is, they gave lost their previous five matches in a row. They also lost their very first match of the World T20 Championship 2023 against England Women by 7 wickets after drafting a decent total of 135-7 on the scoreboard.

West Indies is facing a major backlash in the batting sector except for skipper Hayley Matthews and middle order batter Shemaine Campbelle who drafted 241 and 135 runs in their previous 10 matches.  In their only World Championship match against England, Matthews topped the scoring chart with a score of 42 runs off 32 balls while Cambelle also made 34 runs off 37 deliveries. 

The Caribbean side lack support from Shabika Gajnabi, Shabika Gajnabi and Chinelle Henry. They deliberately need to score runs in order to revive their team’s batting power. 

Their bowling has also not been according to plans. Shamilia Connell and Chinelle Henry failed to restrict the flow of runs. Only Hayley Matthew managed the opponents to some extent with her off breaks. Leg-spinner Afy Fletcher has also been quite beneficial for her side in recent times but will have lesser influence as Indian batters have great experience against the spinners.

Match Details

Match: IND-W vs WI-W, 9th Match, Women's World T20 Cup

Date: Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Time: 6:30 PM

Venue: Newlands, Cape Town

Pitch & Weather Report

The Newlands Cricket Ground is traditionally a bowling-friendly surface. It provides effective bounce and seam action at the beginning so that pace bowlers will be challenging to face in the first six overs or so. 

The weather foreseen in Cape Town on the matchday will be mostly cloudy with a 10% chance of precipitation. The highest and lowest temperature will be 31 and 18 degrees Celsius. Humidity will be at 52% and wind will be flowing at 23 kmph.

IND-W vs WI-W Squad

IND-W: Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Thakur Singh, Smriti Mandhana, Shikha Pandey, Devika Vaidya, Anjali Sarvani

WI-W: Hayley Matthews (c), Rashada Williams (wk), Shemaine Campbelle, Stafanie Taylor, Shabika Gajnabi, Chinelle Henry, Chedean Nation, Zaida James, Afy Fletcher, Shamilia Connell, Shakera Selman, Aaliyah Alleyne, Karishma Ramharack, Trishan Holder, Djenaba Joseph

IND-W vs WI-W Probable XIs

IND-W: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Yastika Bhatia, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Thakur Singh

WI-W: Hayley Matthews (c), Rashada Williams (wk), Shemaine Campbelle, Stafanie Taylor, Shabika Gajnabi, Chinelle Henry, Chedean Nation, Zaida James, Afy Fletcher, Shamilia Connell, Shakera Selman

Match Prediction

IND-W leads 12-8 in the head-to-head against WI-W in T20Is. Also, they have consecutive 5 wins over the opposite side in the last 5 matches. India have a strong and balanced side with their all bases covered. Moreover, with the addition of Smriti Mandana, the side would become more confident against the out-of-form West Indian side. Indian bowlers will play an important role in the match to keep the West Indies batters in check. In this situation, we expect the India Women to win this match.

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