Perry stars in New Zealand win

New Zealand 125 for 5 (Perry 48*, Goswami 2-18) beat India 100 for 7 (Sharma 26, Browne 2-17) by 25 runs
Scorecard

India slipped to another defeat in the Women's Quadrangular series, this time to New Zealand by 25 runs at the Clifton College Close Ground in Bristol.

After choosing to field, Jhulan Goswami (2 for 18) struck early blows for India as New Zealand slipped to 5 for 3 before stumbling further to 28 for 4. Player of the Match, Liz Perry, turned the innings around with her knock of 48 off 41 balls with four boundaries. Katey Martin (29) and Nicola Browne (22) played crucial knocks as New Zealand closed on a competitive 125 for 5.

India's chase never took off as wickets fell at regular intervals. Browne ended with figures of 2 for 17 as India ended on 100 for 7 off 20 overs. Only Mithali Raj (24) and Amita Sharma (26) played handy knocks.

With this defeat, India's chances of making the final have all but evaporated. They will play England on Sunday, while New Zealand take on Australia in the final league match before the play-offs on Monday.

"It was a chaseable total, no doubt about that," said a disappointed Goswami. "We lost early wickets in the first six overs and got bogged down. We could not capitalise on the field restrictions and the asking-rate kept mounting. I will offer no excuses, but we could have batted better. The wicket was good and there was only a slight movement in the morning, but in the second half it was very good.

"We have the one-day internationals coming up next and we need to be in good shape for that. England is the best Twenty20 team in the world, so it will not be easy for us. We will need to sort it out before that match.

"We need a little bit more from each and everyone of us. We cannot make the final barring extraordinary circumstances. But we can still build on the fact that bowling did well to restrict New Zealand. We need to create more pressure."

Perry was thrilled with her effort with the bat. "I had to do a repair job when I walked in," she said. "It was good that I could put my hand up and play some positive cricket. It was quite a true pitch and the Indians bowled good lines to us. We just did not play that great early on. If anything, the pitch got better to bat on later."

Perry was also upbeat about her team's chances of beating Australia and making it to the finals of the competition. "Australia are a hard side to beat. If we put up a good performance there is no reason why we cannot make the final on Monday. We have to carry on with the momentum."