After facing a defeat in the fourth ODI of the five-match series against New Zealand, India vice-captain Deepti Sharma said that the players are helping in keeping each other motivated, ahead of the final clash.
Amelia Kerr's 68-run knock was followed up by a dominant bowling performance as New Zealand defeated India by 63 runs. The fourth ODI was curtailed to 20-overs per side after rain played spoilsport.
"We are definitely keeping each other motivated. Winning and losing is a part of the game, but how we can motivate our players and give them confidence for future matches. With the World Cup coming, we want to take as much confidence as possible forward to the last match of the series. When other players get the confidence, it will play a crucial role for the team," said Deepti Sharma.
New Zealand started the innings with some beautiful stroke-play between Sophie DeVine and Suzie Bates, who were followed up with Amelia Kerr putting in yet another standout performance with a 68-run performance of 33 deliveries.
The solid batting of the first four out was enough to set NZ up for success, as they had already crossed 130 runs before the third wicket fell. 191 runs were scored over the innings.
However, India's batting couldn't live up to the performances we have been seeing lately. India had lost four wickets before even putting a total of 20 runs, with Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia getting caught out on ducks.
Captain Mithali Raj and Richa Ghosh brought some hope back into the squad with their partnership, but Richa would fall when the team was still 95 runs behind the total. The lower order would struggle to hold off Amelia Kerr and the team was all-out at a total of 128 runs after 17.5 overs.
India will play for pride to snatch a win in the final ODI to avoid being whitewashed. The fifth ODI will be streamed live and exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on February 24.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
