India skipper Mithali Raj will not take the field immediately in the ongoing second ODI of the three-match series against England here at County Ground, Taunton.
Mithali has pain in her neck and as a result, she would not take the field. In her absence, Harmanprret Kaur will lead the team.
"Captain Mithali Raj has pain in her neck and will not take the field immediately. Vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur will lead the team in Mithali's absence. Radha Yadav is the substitute fielder," BCCI said in a statement.
Earlier, Mithali Raj played a knock of 59 runs but Kate Cross's spell of 5-34 helped England bundle out India for 221 in the second ODI. Sent into bat first, India got off to a good start as openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma put on 48 runs inside the first ten overs.
Shafali was given a reprieve in the seventh over as her catch was dropped by Lauren Winfield-Hill off the bowling of Katherine Brunt. England finally got the wicket of Mandhana (22) as she was clean bowled by Kate Cross and this brought Jemimah Rodrigues to the middle.
Rodrigues failed to impress with the bat as she managed to score just eight runs and she was sent packing by Cross in the 16th over of the innings. Soon after, Shafali (44) was stumped off the bowling of Sophie Ecclestone, and India was reduced to 77/3 in the 17th over. Harmanpreet Kaur then joined Mithali Raj in the middle and the duo mixed caution with aggression to revive the Indian innings.
Both batters put on 68 runs for the fourth wicket, but as soon as the partnership started looking threatening, Harmanpreet (19) lost her wicket to Cross in the 34th over, reducing India to 145/4.
Deepti Sharma (5), Sneh Rana (5), Taniya Bhatia (2), and Shikha Pandey (2) all failed to impress with the bat, and India found itself in muddy waters after being reduced to 181/8 in the 44th over. Mithali (59) was also run-out in the 47th over. In the end, Jhulan Goswami and Poonam Yadav played knocks of 20 and 10 respectively to take India's score past the 220-run mark.
India had suffered a defeat against England in the first ODI and the ongoing match is a must-win contest for the Indian team.
( With inputs from ANI )
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