Pride at stake for Indian women in 3rd ODI against Australia

The series already lost India women would look to salvage some pride when they take on mighty Australia in the third and final game of the series a part of the ICC Women ODI Championship here tomorrow It has been a disastrous series for Indian women so far as they are yet to taste a victory in four matches including the two practice games preceding the threegame ODI series It has been a dominating performance from Australia who had lost to India in the World Cup semifinalsAustralia women have showed their class by registering convincing wins in all the matches They won the first ODIs by eight wickets and sealed the series with 60run victory in the second match Prior to the ODIs Indian women had also lost both the practice games in Mumbai by massive 321 runs and seven wickets respectively And come tomorrow it would be Indian womens last chance to redeem some pride and bring smiles back to the faces of their fans with a consolation winBut to achieve a favourable result India will have to improve in all departments of the game In the absence of veteran Jhulan Goswami the Indian bowling attack looked lacklustre in the series with Shikha Pandey and Pooja Vastrakar leaking runs upfront The spinners too failed to make any considerable impact with the likes of Ekta Bisht and Poonam Yadav struggling to contain the Australian batswomen in favourable conditions Indias batting has been unimpressive in the two matches and it has cost the team badlyOpener Punam Raut struggled in both the games and was also guilty of wasting too many deliveries while chasing 288 runs in the mustwin second game Barring lefthanded opener Smriti Mandhana who made 67 off 53 balls in the second ODI all the Indian batswomen struggled Much was expected from the likes of skipper Mithali Raj who missed the first ODI due to illness Harmanpreet Kaur Veda Krishnamurthy and Deppti Shama but all of them failed to make any impactThe onus would be on the Indian batters to shoulder the responsibility tomorrow and hand their side a muchneeded moraleboosting victory Australia on the other hand have not put a foot wrong in the tour so far The Australians have been clinical in all departments of the game be it batting bowling or fielding Opener Nicole Bolton is in sublime touch following up her unbeaten 100 with a classy 84 in the second ODI Ellyse Perry struck an unbeaten runaball 70 while Beth Mooney smashed a 40ball 56 in the last match and the duo would be looking to carry forward its good form Captain Meg Lanning got starts in both the games before getting out and would be hoping to score big tomorrowTeams from India Mithali Raj captain Harmanpreet Kaur Smriti Mandhana Veda Krishnamurthy Punam Raut Jemimah Rodrigues Sushma Verma Ekta Bist Rajeshwari Gayakwad Deepti Sharma Shikha Pandey Pooja Vastrakar Mona Meshram Poonam Yadav Sukanya ParidaAustralia Meg Lanning captain Alyssa Healy Nicole Bolton Nicola Carey Ellyse Perry Elyse Velani Ashleigh Gardner Rachel Haynes Jess Jonassen Sophie Molineux Megan Schutt Beh Mooney Belinda Vakarewa Amanda JadeWellingtonCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the goThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever