ICC Women's World T20 2018, India vs England Semi-Final: Best batting unit vs the Best bowling unit in the tournament
In the second semi-final of the ongoing ICC Women’s World T20 tournament, India is likely to face a stern challenge from England, especially from its bowlers.
In the tournament, despite the floundering batting performance, England still managed to reach the semi-final stage, thanks to their bowlers, especially the seam bowlers led by Anya Shrubsole and Natalie Sciver.
Though the slow left-armer Kirstie Gordon too has bowled beautifully in the tournament, Indian batters should not face much difficulty in negotiating her.
However, they will have to be at their very best against the England pacers. The painful memories of Shrubsole decimating India in the 2017 ICC 50-over world cup final with victory in sight are still very much fresh.
She has been in top form in the world cup and is the joint third highest wicket-taker so far with seven wickets in four matches, with an unbelievable average of five and an economy rate of just over three – which are the best figures for any bowler in the list of top wicket-takers in the tournament.
Though Sciver has taken only four wickets thus far, she has not given the opposition batters any room to score freely. She has had an even better economy rate than Shrubsole of just 3 runs per over.
This deadly duo of Shrubsole and Sciver will have to be negotiated intelligently by the Indian batters if they have any chance of making it to their first ever final in the T20 world cup. If India bats first, they need to have a safety first approach.
A strategy of targeting too high and going for too many strokes is going to backfire against this English bowling line up. This is where India should consider opening with Mithali Raj, rather than the aggressive, yet less dependable Tanya Bhatia.
If India can score somewhere in the vicinity of 140, that should be a more than competitive score against a struggling England batting line up.
India must not panic if the scoring rate is a bit slow in the power play overs. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur needs to shed her aggressive approach, at least in this match against the best bowling line-up of the tournament.
Similarly, if India bowls first, they should stick to the basics of bowling wicket to wicket, a strategy that has worked well for all of England’s opponents in the tournament, most notably for the West Indians.
India does have a decent bowling line up, but they need to be disciplined enough. They can certainly restrict England to a score of around 100.
That should be India’s target. Anything around 120 could be a difficult chase against England, even for the best batting line up in the world.