India take on West Indies in their second outing of ICC Women's World Cup 2017 at County Ground in Taunton on June 29, Thursday.
Mithali Raj's side will head into the contest on a high after having beaten England in the tournament opener by a comprehensive 35-run margin. On the other hand, West Indies will look to get back to winning ways following their eight-wicket loss to defending champions Australia on June 26 in Taunton.
India showed glimpses of a champion side as they responded brilliantly after being put into bat. Punam Raut (86) and Smriti Mandhana (90) put on a 144-run opening stand that deflated the spirits of the English team. Skipper Mithali Raj, featuring in her last World Cup tournament, smashed a 73-ball 71 to help India post 281, which proved too much in the end for the hosts.
Deepti Sharma and Shikha Pandey picked up five wickets between them as England were bowled out for 246. Skipper Raj, who was happy with the team's preparations despite not getting to train outdoors due to rain on Wednesday, stressed on the need to maintain their momentum in the upcoming games.
"The first game has been a good start and has built a momentum for us in the tournament. But we do understand that we have to play few more games before we qualify for the semis so the next game is equally important against West Indies," Raj said.
On the other hand, the West Indies will be looking to make amends for their shoddy show as they return to Taunton to take on India, whom they have never beaten in World Cup encounters.
Stafanie Taylor's side suffered a collapse against Australia and were able to make only 204 even after a good start given by Hayley Matthews and Chedean Nation at the top.
Vasbert Drakes-coached side was helpless as Nicole Bolton struck a century to help Australia gun down the total in just 38.1 overs. However, the former West Indies cricketer believes that there is room for improvement in the long tournament and added that his team will take inspiration from their 2016 World T20 campaign, in which they lost the warm-up match and went on to win the trophy.
"In the first warm up game in Chennai, we were beaten by Australia. We analysed what went wrong, we would have planned better, and we also executed better and we ended up winning that competition. It was similar to what happened here," Drakes said, as quoted by Firstpost.
India Women vs West Indies Women: Schedule
Date: June 29
Time: 9:30 am GMT (3 pm IST)
Venue: County Ground, Taunton
Where to watch live
INDIA: TV - Star Sports Network. Live stream - Hotstar
UK: TV - Sky Sports. Live stream - Sky Go
