Amelia Kerr stands out with yet another brilliant performance, scoring 68 runs off 33 deliveries. After her brilliant innings with the bat, she dismissed opener Smriti Mandhana and half-centurion Richa Ghosh early on with two impressive catches and then picked up three wickets in the 18th over as the women in blue limped to chase 192. Her extraordinary performance has helped New Zealand Women’s Cricket Team to extend their series lead over the Indian Women’s Cricket team in the ongoing ODI series after sealing their fourth win of the five-match series.
Catch the highlights of the fourth ODI - from fall of wickets for each day, top hits, and much more, of this test series on Prime Video:
The match was delayed due to rain and thus shortened to just 20 over apiece, with NZ batting first and setting a massive target of 191 for India. India’s batting order couldn’t hold up to the NZ bowling attack and fell apart at 128 to lose the match by 63 runs.
New Zealand started the innings with some beautiful stroke-play between Sophie DeVine and Suzie Bates. The solid batting of the first four out was enough to set NZ up for success, as they had already crossed 130 runs before the third wicket fell and set a massive total of 191.
However, India’s batting couldn’t live up to the performances. India had lost four wickets before even putting a total of 20 runs, with Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia getting caught out on ducks. Captain Mithali Raj and Richa Ghosh brought some hope back into the squad with their partnership, but Richa would fall when the team was still 95 runs behind the total. The lower order would struggle to hold off Amelia Kerr and the team was all-out at a total of 128 runs after 17.5 overs.
In a post-match briefing with the media, Vice-Captain Deepti Sharma said, “We are definitely keeping each other motivated. Winning and losing is a part of the game, but how we can motivate our players and give them confidence for future matches. With the World Cup coming, we want to take as much confidence as possible forward to the last match of the series. When other players get the confidence, it will play a crucial role for the team.”
India will play for pride to snatch a win in the final ODI to avoid being whitewashed.
Tune in to the fifth and final ODI of the series on 24th February and will air live and exclusive on Amazon Prime Video at 3:30 AM.
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