Mithali Raj addressing the press on the eve of World Cup final against England. (Source: Reuters)
The Lord’s cricket ground has not hosted even a single match of the ICC Women’s World cup till now but on Sunday, it will host the final of the tournament between India and England. Captain of the Indian team Mithali Raj has said that they don’t play at Lord’s often but the last time she played there, the famous slope did not matter much.
India will look to win the world title for the first time when they take on England and the skipper has predicted that Lord’s will see a lot of runs on Sunday.
“We don’t play at Lord’s that often but when I last played here, the slope wasn’t really in my mind,” said Raj. “If you start thinking too much about the slope and how the ball is going to curve in or curve out, then you forget the fundamentals of your own batting.
India’s batting has been in good touch as they have failed only twice in the tournament in eight matches. Raj expects that the batting will come good on Sunday as well and will be focussed on the match.
“We need to keep it as simple as we have been throughout the tournament and see where it takes us in the final. Looking at the wicket, it looks full of runs and any venue where you’ve scored runs previously always gives you confidence. It gives you confidence but you have to have that focus and put in the work to score your runs,” she said.
India’s Harmanpreet Kaur made a match-winning 171* against Australi in the semi-final which India won by 36 runs. England won’t be a pushover though. They had smashed 377 for seven in a pool win over Pakistan – their highest total in a World Cup match.
This is not the first time Raj is playing at Lord’s and she has some of the her best innings here. She made 59 in an ODI at the venue back in 2006 and a brilliant unbeaten 94 at the ground six years later.
