India Women rue poor starts with bat and ball

India Women posted their highest total of the series. They put on their first fifty-plus partnership of the series. Veda Krishnamurthy surpassed the team's highest individual score of the series and for the first time in three games, the team was not bowled out - but only just. The scorecard of the third ODI showed many positives in the Indian batting, in context of the series, but the margin of improvement did not seem big.

India have struggled to get the runs from the start of an innings, have strived to put on substantial partnerships, and have relied on only one batsman per match. On Friday, it was Krishnamurthy's 63 that hauled India past 150 to an eventual score of 182 for 9. She said after the match that the team has been "banking on the bowlers" to defend whatever total the batsmen put up, and that was also one of the factors behind the team's decision to bat first in all three games, despite their struggles while doing so.

"We are just having faith in our bowling that we can defend whatever we post," Krishnamurthy said. "Right now the bowling is the strength so three spinners playing in the XI and Jhulan (Goswami) being the top bowler, we bank on the bowlers for whatever total we post. It didn't work out but this is the reason we were looking to bat first.

"I think we played a lot of dot balls initially and there were hardly singles taken. Throughout the series, we have been losing too many wickets in the beginning and then whoever is going in has to build an innings and take it forward, rather than going and playing their game. That is the main concern."

India's bowling probably relied too much either on Goswami, or on the spinners to trouble the New Zealand batsmen on slow and turning pitches in the first two matches. In the first ODI, the spinners took all eight wickets to fall to bowlers, and in the second Goswami returned with economical figures of 10-3-14-2. The scenario changed in the third match when New Zealand openers Suzie Bates and Rachel Priest came out with an attacking mindset.

"We gave too many boundaries initially, we gave a lot of boundaries in fact," Krishnamurthy said. "That's where the game got out of our hands. We had to look for wickets initially. They were getting a lot of boundaries initially so at that point the game was in New Zealand's hands because they had a good first-wicket partnership and to come back from there was very difficult. You have to expect a collapse or a hat-trick or something."

Priest played a key role in that opening stand, attacking the spinners from the second over to ensure that the partnership stayed intact, even if it meant scoring only a few runs from Goswami's bowling. She scored boundaries off every spinner except Rajeshwari Gayakwad and scored the least against Goswami - three runs off 13 balls.

"She [Goswami] bowled really well again today, it was just probably a sub-conscious mind shift for us that we were going to be aggressive against everybody," Priest said. "She's definitely their most dangerous bowler for us. We weren't too worried about what we scored off her as long as we scored at the other end. She's always going to be a threat to us but as long as we can be confident and play out shots against her, we'll score against her as well."

After her 19-ball duck in the series opener and a watchful innings against spinners in the second match, Priest decided to attack the spinners the third time.

"We had that discussion after the first game and just tweaked our game plans," Priest said. "For me personally it was more about being aggressive and taking on the bowlers, the spinners in particular. It was about moving our feet and trusting our game. It (attacking) is an extension of my natural game. I think I went away from that in the first game which didn't work for me, I think I might look to be more attacking."