Series on the line in the decider

It’s New Zealand’s pink run of form against the Indian teams, as the Kiwi women’s team saw captain Sophie Devine lead from the front, with the bat and all to tie up the ODI series, picking up a comfortable win against Harmanpreet Kaur’s girls.

Moving to the series decider, which will be all to play for, for both teams and here’s our match preview and predictions. 

India vs New Zealand 3rd ODI | New Zealand Women tour of India 2024 | 13:30 IST, October 29

Sophie Devine was the star of the show in the second ODI between India and New Zealand. Right from the toss, whatever she touched, turned to gold. Devine elected to bat first and an 87 run partnership between Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer set the platform for Devine, who along with Maddy Green, powered New Zealand to 259/9 in their 50 overs. The Kiwis were clinical with the ball and kept chipping in with wickets, not letting any partnership develop, with Devine picking up a three-wicket haul while the experienced Lea Tahuhu’s early strikes had killed the Indian chase. Jess Kerr with her medium pace once again troubled the Indians, picking up the crucial wicket of Shafali Verma early on. 

For the Indians, it was a hard toil with the ball. With Renuka Singh not playing, Saima Thakor opened the bowling with Arundhati Reddy and neither made any breakthroughs early on. It wasn’t until the spinners came on that India got into the game with Radha Yadav’s four-for and Deepti Sharma’s double making sure the visitors didn’t get to 300. With the bat, the hosts disappointed as, barring Radha Yadav and Saima Thakor’s ninth-wicket partnership of 70, there was nothing to cheer for, for the Ahmedabad crowd. India will be hoping that their top order fires with the likes of Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Tejal Hasabnis and Deepti Sharma, all failing to convert their starts.

In Ahmedabad again, it will be a flat track, which should be conducive to the batters. Expect some runs and the slow bowlers to come into play and expect Harmanpreet Kaur’s girls to bounce back strongly to take the series and avoid a home series defeat, unlike the men’s team.

Fantasy XI: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Suzie Bates, Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Sophie Devine, Georgia Plimmer, Renuka Singh, Arundhati Reddy, Jess Kerr, Radha Yadav

Venue: Ahmedabad

Winners Prediction: India