India faces South Africa in must-win match

Its destiny in its own hands, India will go all out to brush off an inconsistent run and seal a semi-final berth in the Women’s World Cup when it plays South Africa in a do-or-die match here on Sunday.

So far in the eight-team tournament, India has not fired in the manner it would have liked to. With three wins and as many losses, India, which is placed fifth in the standings, finds itself in a must-win situation in its final league match.

India’s semi-final chances were dented when the West Indies, which is also vying to advance to the knockout stage, secured a point from South Africa’s fixture that was washed out and moved up to seven points. A win on Sunday will see India advance to the last-four, and a point from the match will also work for the Mithali Raj-led side as it has a superior net run rate (+0.768) than West Indies (-0.890). In case India loses to South Africa, its only hope of advancing to the semi-finals will be if England, which has an even better net run rate (+0.778), also loses its last league stage match to Bangladesh and finishes with a lower NRR.

But, the ‘Women in Blue’ would want to hold all the cards and get a two-match winning momentum going into the semi-finals. Vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur has been India’s most consistent performer with the bat while all-rounders Pooja Vastrakar and Sneh Rana have shown that they can be counted on to score quick runs down the order.

The batters will need to fire as a group to get the better of South Africa, which has only lost one match. The bowling pack, led by pacer Jhulan Goswami, would look to deliver the goods in a crunch contest.