Harmanpreet Singh and his side have suffered an early setback after losing by 58 runs against New Zealand in their tournament opener. As seen in the India Women’s National Cricket Team vs New Zealand Women’s National Cricket Team Match Scorecard, the defeat leaves them facing an uphill struggle to qualify for the semifinals and reach Pakistan on Sunday.
New Zealand openers Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer made a swift start and capitalised on their powerplay to score 55/0 within six overs – but things soon began unravelling.
| # | Date | Venue | Winner | Result / Margin | Notable Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oct 29, 2024 | Ahmedabad, India | India Women | India won by 6 wickets | Chased 233; strong batting from India. (NDTV Sports) |
| 2 | Oct 27, 2024 | Ahmedabad, India | New Zealand Women | New Zealand won by 76 runs | NZ put up good total then restricted India. (NDTV Sports) |
| 3 | Oct 24, 2024 | Ahmedabad, India | India Women | India won by 59 runs | Good all-round effort from India. (NDTV Sports) |
| 4 | Feb 12, 2022 | Queenstown, New Zealand | New Zealand Women | NZ won by 62 runs | Suzie Bates scored a ton. (Wikipedia) |
| 5 | Feb 24, 2022 | Queenstown, New Zealand | India Women | India won by 6 wickets | India chased comfortably in this match. (Cricbuzz) |
India vs New Zealand
New Zealand women came out swinging as they took down India in an emphatic opening match of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, beating Harmanpreet Kaur’s side by an overwhelming margin (58 runs).
Harmanpreet Kaur and her team will now have to fight their way into semi-final contention through Group A to stay alive in this competition.
Sophie Devine’s unbeaten 57 off 36 helped New Zealand post an impressive 160/4 on a slow Dubai wicket, even after they suffered the early loss of opener Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer during their powerplay innings.
Brooke Halliday (40 off 34) and Sophie Devine both added boundaries during this phase, helping New Zealand dominate first half of innings playback. Rosemary Mair (4/27) and Lea Tahuhu (3/15) stood out among India’s bowling attacks, who fell short by reaching all out on 102 after 19 overs.
1st ODI
India women began their series impressively against New Zealand with an impressive victory in the opening ODI at Ahmedabad.
Hosts India managed to defend an aggressive target of 228 runs and Radha Yadav and Saima Thakor claimed most wickets; notable starts and partnerships from Indian batsmen ensured an acceptable total was scored.
Smriti Mandhan won the toss and elected to bat first at Narendra Modi Stadium after she won the toss. Unfortunately for Mandhan who was filling in for Harmanpreet Kaur while she is injured, Mandhan lost her wicket within three overs when Georgia Plimmer caught off Jess Kerr’s bowling; Georgia Plimmer caught it.
Kerr then had Tejal Hasabnis caught behind by Dayalan Hemalatha as she attempted to play the sweep shot against a slow delivery that held some bounce on the surface in the seventh over.
Furthermore, Dayalan Hemalatha caught Deepti Sharma for a duck in that same over and then made quick work of breaking apart Brooke Halliday and Maddy Green as soon as two batswomen collapsed simultaneously in quick succession.
Losing these three batsmen prevented India from building an easily manageable lead and hindered their lower order from capitalising on an encouraging start.
Players such as Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia and debutant Tejal Hasabnis started strong but failed to turn those starts into substantial scores; ultimately New Zealand bowlers tightened the noose further and curbed India’s scoring rate before eventually wrapping up the innings with 168 runs scored by India.
2nd ODI
New Zealand women turned in an outstanding performance against India to square their series at 1-1. Led by Sophie Devine – who became the first batsperson ever to score fifty off number four or lower in Women’s T20 World Cup match-play – New Zealand posted 160/4 from 20 overs with Devine making an impressive 57 off 36 to lead them to victory.
Georgia Plimmer and Brooke Halliday used aggressive powerplay batting strategies to set the pace early in their innings alongside Devine.
India found themselves struggling to defend their total in the second innings, struggling with both bat and ball to defend. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur and opener Smriti Mandhana both lost early wickets before Jemima Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh and Saima Thakor could make any significant impacts; each being dismissed quickly afterwards.
Rosemary Mair and Lea Tahuhu delivered superb bowling to limit India to 102/10 in 19 overs for their first defeat of the tournament, crushing their hopes of making the semi-finals by 58 runs.
Harmanpreet and team must now bounce back with victory against Pakistan on Sunday in order to keep their chances alive; their net run rate (NRR) also suffered as they are now amongst the lowest net run rate group teams.
3rd ODI
On Sunday, India and New Zealand will meet again for an ODI at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Chandigarh – this time for their third and final ODI of this series. Both teams have won two matches thus far in this series.
New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first, beginning their innings with opener Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer hitting boundaries during their powerplay overs.
Unfortunately, however, in the eighth over Bates edged to Jemimah Rodrigues for her wicketkeeping role while Rodrigues caught an off Mair for an early dismissal to end Plimmer’s innings – 34 runs off 24 balls at 4.00.
Bates and Sciver-Brunt then hit form, contributing 75 runs from the final six overs to keep England in control. Bates reached her half century from just 67 balls off NSB before playing her ball to deep midwicket fence for four runs more.
Sciver-Brunt proved less patient but still kept things under control by hitting four fours to long on boundary for another four run knockoff.
India began their innings poorly, losing their first wicket when Harmanpreet was caught short leg by New Zealand bowler Lea Tahuhu off Rodrigues and caught by Lea Tahuhu off Rodrigues – this brought in Shreyanka Vastrakar to try to salvage India’s innings but she was soon dismissed for only eight runs off 16 balls by Amelia Kerr.
India was led by spinners Alyssa Healy (4 wickets), Kirstie Pollard (2) and Jasprit Bumrah (2 wickets each). Additionally, pacers Pooja Sharma and Rukmini Agarwal each took three wickets as support.
Australia will miss Sophie Molineux for the remaining five ODIs against India due to injury, but Alyssa Healy, Tahlia McGrath, Kim Garth and Nicole Faltum all remain available to play despite any prior concerns of quad and groin issues in Darcie Brown and Georgia Wareham (quad) remaining part of their respective squads despite such concerns arising in regards to inclusion into Australia’s squad despite this being announced with no restrictions – with hosts Australia winning 29 out of 30 multi-game bilateral women’s ODI series in terms of multi-game bilateral bilateral women’s ODI series wins with no restrictions whatsoever in place against any opponent before facing India this time round!
