India women vs Australia women: Deepti Sharma backs Women in Blue to end losing streak in 3rd ODI

Leading all-rounder Deepti Sharma backed the India women’s cricket team to snap their losing streak in ODIs against Australia at home ahead of the third and final game against the world champions in Mumbai.

The Women in Blue have now lost nine games on the trot at home against the Southern Stars. Two of those defeats came in the ongoing series, by margins of six wickets and three runs respectively. The last time India defeated Australia in an ODI at home was back in 2007.

Both Deepti’s superb haul of 5/38 and Richa Ghosh’s 96 would go in vain in the second ODI as India would throw the crumble towards the end of both innings after finding themselves in the driver’s seat for the most part, falling narrowly short of the 259-run target and conceding the series in the process.

“Look, winning and losing is a part of the game but we have improved as a team be it as a bowling unit or batting. We will try to break their winning streak as soon as possible,” Deepti told the media in Mumbai before India’s training session.

“There have been a lot of improvements. Earlier, whenever we would play against Australia the games never used to go that close. This is one positive (from the last match) that we are able to take it till the end,” she added.

Deepti said the team will look to focus on the positives drawn from the second game across departments.

“We did well as a bowling unit, the spinners and the pacers to have restricted them. At the same time the batters did well, their partnerships in between were good,” she said.

Deepti praised debutant Shreyanka Patil (1/43) and Richa Ghosh (96 off 117 balls) for their spirited performances in the second ODI.

“It is not easy to perform so well in your first match which Shreyanka did. Richa played fearless cricket which was enjoyable to watch,” she said.

Deepti, who led India’s bowling with a fine spell of five for 38 her second fifer in career credited her extended bowling sessions at nets for that effort.

“(If) I have to speak about my bowling, I have trained a lot. I have increased my bowling sessions and  have also bowled in different phases such as with the new ball, or in the middle overs, or even how to bowl with the old ball in the death overs,” she said.

The senior player admitted she would look to improve her strike-rate. “Every team plays to win but some days you are able to pull it off and some days you are not,” Deepti said.

“We gave it a good fight, took it till the end of the game and now I am focusing on tomorrow’s match,” she added.

With inputs from PTI