India Vs Pakistan - India to take on Pakistan once again on a cricketing field.

                   
                    India and Pakistan once again would be facing each other on the cricket field in a major ICC tournament. It will be the third time within a month that India will take on Arch rivals and neighbours on a cricket field. This time it will be the Indian women team who will play against Pakistan on 2nd July  in the ongoing ICC women's world cup, 2017 being held in England and Wales.
                         India has had a sensational start to the tournament winning their first two matches against England and West Indies. Indian cricket team has shined with the bat and with the ball in both the matches winning their matches quite comprehensively. They started their campaign against the hosts England and won the match by 35 runs and in their next match against West Indies they were even more confident and won the match by 7 wickets.
               Indian batswomen have shined on the big stage and have shown great form with Smriti Mandhana and Mithali Raj making runs in both the matches.
             

Samriti Mandhana scored a century in the second match against West indies in ICC Women's world cup, 2017 

                                  Smriti Mandhana had already proved her metal coming into the world cup. She has displayed her immense batting talent on the world stage so much so that she got selected in the ICC women team of the year in 2016. She becomes the only women cricketer from India to ever get selected in the world team. But it was not easy for her as she got injured playing  in a women big bash league in Australia. She could only make to the national team at the end moment and thank God she made it to the team as she has been the match winner in both the matches. She has scored 90 and 106 runs in first two matches against England and West Indies respectively. She has really played upto her potential and has been the vital part of Indian batting lineup.
                          Mithali Raj on other hand has always been the star of the Indian Women cricket team. She has been playing wonderfully in the world cup and has already achieved batting feat in the tournament by breaking records. She made a world record of scoring 7 consecutive fifties in one days. She has been not out for 4 times in her last seven innings with scores of 70*, 64, 73*, 51*, 54, 62*, 71. She also breaks the record of most number of fifties in ODIs. She now has scored 47 fifties.

Mithali Raj made a record of 7 consecutive fifties in ODIs scoring quick fired 71 in the match against England

                                She has been instrumental in both the matches making 71 and 46 runs against England and West Indies respectively. 

                      Indian team has shined in the bowling department as well. Indian spinners Deepti Sharma, Poonam Yadav, Shikha Pandey and Ekta Bisht have bowled well in both matches. They have been economical and have taken wickets as well. Deepti Sharma though has stood apart of all being the leading wicket taker in the team with 5 scalps in 2 matches. 

                           Pakistan on the other hand has had worst start to the tournament losing their matches against South Africa and England. They were defeated by South Africa by 3 wickets in a hard fought first match but England outplayed them in the other match and they lost the match by 107 runs(d/l method).
                              It will be a high pressure match for both the teams as it has always been in any match when the two rivals play against each other. Indian team is in great form and will start as favourites to win the match. They will have to hold on to their nerves and play their normal cricket to win the match and carry on with their winning streak in the tournament.
-Navdeep Sharma