Tauranga, March 15 (Agency) In a rematch of the 2017 Women’s World Cup final, India and England will face each other on March 16 in a round-robin match of the 2022 edition. However, both sides are in a different place in this ongoing tournament. While India seem to be getting better with every game, the defending champions England have not won a match yet and find themselves on the verge of an early exit. Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Sneh Rana and Pooja Vastrakar have stepped up for India as the team has won two games out of three so far. England, on the other hand, suffered three consecutive narrow loses. India come into the game after beating West Indies in their last match by 155 runs as Mandhana and Harmanpreet scored brilliant centuries. Harmanpreet believes batting and bowling partnerships have been the key to India’s success so far, something she wants them to repeat when they face England at the Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui. “I think in batting the great partnerships is important and in bowling, the way we build partnerships especially,” she explained.
“I feel we do that really well and those are the things we want to continue in the England match and the upcoming matches. “I think those are the areas we love to continue. Apart from that, sometimes we are losing back-to-back wickets and if we can work on that then I think things are the way we want. “We just have to stay relaxed and enjoy the situation because if you are relaxed and enjoying it then you can perform better.” Harmanpreet added, “I think for us it’s important for us that the way we performed in the last game we just need to continue that rather than thinking about what is their (England’s) weaknesses. “Right now, we’re only looking at our strengths and the areas where we are doing well and the areas where we need to improve as a team and we are working on that. “I’m sure you know the small areas we need to improve from the last game and we will come out from those things and the good things we have been doing so far, we want to continue that.” England suffered their third consecutive loss of the tournament against South Africa last time out, losing by three wickets following previous defeats to Australia and West Indies. That result was underpinned by more fielding errors, including dropped chances and a missed stumping, but Amy Jones believes England are more than capable of correcting those wrongs. “After the West Indies game, we dropped and missed a lot of chances, so we spoke about that as a group, obviously not wanting to put a huge amount of pressure on the first opportunity that comes in the next game,” said Jones. “We just spoke about how we want to be really positive, really supportive of each other out there and just do the little things right, like attacking the ball and getting some good energy going.
“The chances will be created from that and we know our skill level is good enough to take those chances. It was unfortunate that we missed a few last time out, but with the games coming so quick you have to look individually if there’s any quick learnings you can make. “In terms of the whole team, it’s so important that we keep supporting each other, we keep the energy high in the field and as a team we play at our best when we’re enjoying it, we’re supporting each other and having a bit of a laugh – that’s the mood we want to create.” England have a good recent record against India and with every game now a must-win for the reigning champions, Jones hopes that will come into play when they meet again. “It definitely helps,” she added. “It’s quite natural to look back at the last games you played against them and to have that recent success against them as a group will give us confidence.” The match starts at 6:30 AM IST.