Day 3 Talking Points: Vastrakar, Rana bail India out of trouble to victory

Vastrakar, Rana to the rescue

India's innings was a story of three parts – the Smriti Mandhana-Deepti Sharma recovery after the early wicket, the stunning middle-order collapse and an incredible rescue act by Pooja Vastrakar and Sneh Rana.

India were cruising with Mandhana and Deepti set for big scores before the wicket of the latter triggered a middle-order collapse. From 96/1, India were staring down the barrel at 114/6.

Vastrakar made her intent clear after walking out to bat at No.8, smashing two boundaries in Nida Dar's final over. That set the tone for the remaining 15 overs of the innings as Rana and Vastrakar matches each other stroke for stroke and took the game away from Pakistan.

Both the batters got to their respective fifties as they put on a splendid 122-run partnership, the highest for the seventh wicket in ICC Women's Cricket World Cup history. Vastrakar fell in the last over of the innings but not before ensuring that India had a total to defend.

The partnership will instil a lot of confidence in the batters going forward, given India's recent struggles with the bat.

Goswami, Meghana's brilliant Powerplay display

Rajeshwari Gayakwad was the star for India with the ball, but it was the brilliant spell of fast bowling in the Powerplay from Jhulan Goswami and Meghana Singh that put Pakistan on the back foot from the very beginning.

The bowlers were ably backed by the fielders and the opening seven overs only got Pakistan a total of eight runs. Though the last three overs fetched three boundaries, Pakistan were behind the eight-ball at the end of the Powerplay, finishing with just 26 runs.

The scoreboard pressure eventually got to the batters as Javeria Khan fell in the first overs after the fielding restrictions were lifted attempting a big shot. Pakistan never really managed to recover thereafter and were bowled out for 137, falling short by a massive margin of 107 runs.

Net run rate boost for India

It's still very early days in the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2022 but India's net run rate boost could make a huge difference in the standings at the business end of the tournament.

The first three games of the tournament were closely-fought, with two of them going into the last over of the match. The huge margin of victory puts India well ahead of the rest of the teams at +2.140.

For Pakistan, it is going to be an uphill task to negate the margin of this loss and it isn't going to get easier either, as they face Australia in their next match on Tuesday, 8 March.