After India's dream of making it to the Super Six stage of the ICC Women's World Cup was washed away, they will now face arch-rivals Pakistan in the 7-8th place classification match today
Due to their 138-run defeat to Sri Lanka, the Indian eves would now have to go through the qualifiers if they want to play in the next edition of the World Cup.u00a0
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The Mithali Raj-led team will have to put their best foot forward to salvage some pride against Pakistan.
The pressure to win will be on the hosts after two back-to-back defeats (against England and Sri Lanka).
If India have some bowling and fielding issues, Pakistan need to get their batting right. India’s bowlers — former skipper Jhulan Goswami, Nagarajan Niranjana and Ekta Bisht — have been unable to restrict the opposition.
While, Harmanpreet Kaur, Karu Jain and Murugesan Tirushkamini have contributed with the bat, 30-year-old Raj, No 1 batswoman in ODIs on the ICC rankings, has been unable to find form.
Pakistan too are in the throes of adversity. SA handed them a 126-run defeat to ensure their exit from the tournament. They were able to put on board only 84, 104 and 81 against Aus, NZ and SA respectively. u00a0