NAN-S-8
Cricket
Lagos, July 19, 2017 (NAN) India may be more familiar than Australia with surroundings in Derby County, at the ongoing ICC Women World Cup in London but Nicole Bolton is confident that the world champion can win on any ground.
ICC said in a statement on its website on Wednesday that India won all four games it has played at the County Ground.
Bolton, who has scored 337 runs at 56.16 in the tournament so far, is confident Australia can adapt quickly to conditions in Derby and book a place in Sunday’s final to be played at Lord’s Ground.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“With the extra break heading into the game, we’ll be able to familiarise ourselves with the ground and the conditions and have a look at some footage as well,’’ Bolton said.
India captain Mithali Raj has been in form in the competition, scoring 356 runs in seven innings and becoming the first woman to surpass 6,000 runs in one-day cricket in the process.
Raj and scored 69 in defeat to the Australians earlier in the competition but knows that counts for nothing when India meets the reigning world champion on Thursday.
“It’s all about how the teams respond to the situation and the conditions on the day,’’ she added.
“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.
“We’ve played a lot of the group stage here, four games, so we are aware of the conditions and that is our advantage.
“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.
“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,’’ the statement quoted Raj as saying. (NAN)
KOA/PDE
=======
(Editing by Peter Ejiofor)