India Women’s Path to Semifinals: Nepal Challenge in Asia Cup

In their final Group A Women’s T20 Asia Cup match, India will take on Nepal on Tuesday with hopes of extending their winning streak and securing a semifinal spot.

India advanced to the semifinals of the continental event after winning both of their opening two games handily. They defeated United Arab Emirates by 78 runs and Pakistan by seven wickets, respectively.

As the tournament’s overwhelming favourites and defending winners India crushed the unfortunate Emirates squad on Sunday, minnows Nepal hardly have time to bounce back from the beating they suffered at the hands of Pakistan in their last match.

Pakistan increased their net run rate with a convincing victory over Nepal, moving them up to second place in Group A, while India looks certain to make it to the final four.

But India won’t let that disturb them; instead, they’ll focus on maintaining the momentum they’ve built up with two convincing wins as they advance to the semifinals.

India has shown off their skills in both bowling and batting thus far in the competition, and they will probably keep doing so on Tuesday.

After the bowlers’ outstanding performance, captain Harmanpret Kaur and middle-order player Richa Ghosh led the way in the middle-order as the UAE was hammered, even though the daring opening pair of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma struck with the bat to secure the victory over Pakistan.

Particularly the big-hitting Ghosh was in a destructive mood, scoring 64 off just 29 balls, while Kaur amassed 66 off 47 deliveries.

India achieved their first-ever 200+ total in Twenty20 Internationals thanks to Ghosh’s brilliant knock, even though Kaur performed the duty of the anchor to perfection.

Renuka Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, and Deepti Sharma, among others, have been bowling really well for India in terms of both restricting runs and capturing wickets.

Tanuja Kanwar, who was sent in to replace the injured off-spinner Shreyanka Patil, did her job admirably as well, conceding only 14 runs and claiming a wicket in her entire allotted four overs.

The task is well known to the Indu Barma-led Nepal team, who opened the competition with a record six-wicket triumph over the UAE.

Their first-ever victory in the competition will undoubtedly give them confidence, but much more will be required for the Himalayan nation to even begin to challenge India’s overwhelming dominance.

Teams:

India (from): Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Uma Chetry (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Deepti Sharma, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh, D Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Tanuja Kanwar, Sajana Sajeevan.

Nepal (from): Indu Barma (C), Kajol Shrestha, Rubina Chettri, Sabnam Rai, Sita Rana Magar, Rajmati Airee, Puja Mahato, Bindu Rawal, Roma Thapa, Mamta Chaudhary, Kabita Joshi, Kabita Kunwar, Dolly Bhatta, Kritika Marasini, Samjhana Khadka.
Match starts at 7 PM IST.

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