New Zealand Cricket: India edge out White Ferns

India repulsed a spirited late charge from the White Fern bowlers to record a three wicket win in the third place play-off of the Twenty20 Quadrangular Series at Aldershot, England.

After winning the toss and electing to bat the White Ferns could only muster 95 for seven on a difficult pitch with India reaching 96 for seven with one ball to spare.

The White Ferns batsmen found it difficult to time the ball fluently with Amy Satterthwaite’s 35 off 44 balls the top score while in-form Liz Perry was next best with 18 off 24.

Amita Sharma proved to be the best of the Indian attack with the right-arm seamer removing openers Suzie Bates and Aimee Watkins cheaply and returned final figures of two for 11 off four overs.

New ball bowler Kelly Anderson got the White Ferns off to a great start in defence of their modest total with two early wickets before tight bowling from Kate Broadmore kept India in check through the middle stages.

The scoreboard pressure got too much for Harmanpreet Kaur (14) and Veda Krishnamurthy (15) as captain Watkins removed the pair before Anderson picked up her third to turn the match New Zealand’s way.

However, Jhulan Goswami wrestled back the momentum with a couple of timely boundaries. Her match winning 33 off 28 deliveries sealed the win and secured third place for India.

Anderson returned an impressive haul of three for 17 while Broadmore conceded a miserly seven runs off her full complement of four overs.

White Ferns captain Aimee Watkins was gutted after the loss.

"Everyone's really disappointed. We obviously we did not get a big score on the board. While bowling, we were all over the place and we bowled both sides of the wicket. We also gave away too many extras I think."

"Batting first was definitely the right thing for us to do. We realised pretty early on that it was a slow wicket. In fact while going into bowl, we felt we had enough. The asking rate shot up, but after the 10th over, we had a couple of overs where we gave away too many runs. But batting first was the right call, it is just that India beat us at the post."

Watkins felt the loss will not have any impact on the upcoming ODI series.

"We are done with the Twenty20, it is time for the new format, the fifty overs. The next match is on Thursday and right now that's what we are focused on right now," concluded Watkins.

The first match of One-Day International section of the Quadrangular Series sees White Ferns take on Australia on Thursday 30 June at10.45am local time, 9.45pm NZ time.