India vs Australia, ICC Women’s World Cup 2017: It will be exceptional if we pull out a win against Australia, says Mithali Raj

Indian women’s team will be up against Australia in the second semi-final of ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 on Thursday at Derby. India had lost their round-robin game at the hands of Meg Lanning’s side but Indian captain Mithali Raj feels that her side have played four group stage at this venue so they have an idea about the conditions.

“We’ve played a lot of the group stage here, four games, so we are aware of the conditions and that is our advantage,” she said.

“But Australia is a very good side. They won the last edition of this tournament and they have a lot of players who have played in high-pressure games,” she added.

“It’s all about how the teams respond to the situation and the conditions on the day,” she said.

The Indian captain further added that the team needs to perform well on a particular day and also said that a win in this game would be exceptional.

“How the players play the situation is important because having said that Derby is our home ground, you need to perform on that day to win. “But for this Indian team, it is going to be a big game and if we can pull out one win, it will be exceptional by the team,” she added.

“We’ll make sure we’re really clear what our plans are. On any given day, it’s irrelevant where we play, if we play our best cricket hopefully we’ll win the match,” she said.

Australia’s Nicole Bolton suggested that her side can’t afford to be off their game.

“India have played a couple of matches at Derby as well so they’ll be pretty familiar with the conditions as well. We can’t afford to be off our game, as you have seen throughout the tournament if you have an off day the other team can get a big jump on you,” she added.

Talking about the venue and Indian team, Bolton suggested that her side would have a bit of work to do before coming into this game.

“We’ll have to do a bit of homework, look at the conditions and see what Derby has to offer because I think India will come out and really take it to us.”

Courtesy : indianexpress