Indian eves News

After stunning the defending champion Australia, India were high on hopes heading to Lord's for the ultimate match. Despite being Davids in the contest, they successfully restricted the English side to 228 for seven. Courtesy to few spellbinding deliveries by Jhulan Goswami and Poonam Yadav.

India will now take on host nation England, at cricket's grandest stage of all, The Lord's, on Sunday.  

India were reduced to 21 for 2 in the eighth over but a 132-run stand between Mithali (109) and Harmanpreet Kaur (60) for the third wicket brought them back into the match.

The Indians, enjoying good run, would certainly start as overwhelming favourites against Sri Lanka, who have looked below-par in the tournament so far with three defeats from as many matches.

Put to bat first, openers Punam Raut (86) and Smriti Mandhana (90) wove a ravishing 144-run stand followed by skipper Mithali (71) chipping in a few boundaries as India posted a total of 281.

Mithali also rued over the fact that the country was obsessed with men playing cricket while nobody is interested in watching matches featuring Indian eves.

The Black Sticks were untroubled from the start with Olivia Merry converting a splendid field goal in the fourth minute of the first quarter.

It was skipper Rani, Monika, Deepika and Navjot Kaur who held their nerve to convert goals in the tense penalty shootout that saw them through after the two sides scored two goals apiece in regulation time.