Indore, Oct 16 (IANS) The Indian women’s cricket team ramped up its preparations for the crucial 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup clash against England, set to happen on Sunday, with a high-intensity fielding session at the Holkar Stadium.

With back-to-back defeats to South Africa and reigning champions Australia in Visakhapatnam, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led squad focused on tightening their fielding ahead of the high-stakes encounter in Indore, where they look to bounce back in winning ways.

“The objective of today’s fielding session was to get used to the conditions first and fielding under pressure. We have covered four areas in this – high catching, ground fielding, direct hits and fielding under pressure,” said fielding coach Munish Bali in a video posted on the BCCI social media accounts on Thursday.

There was also an interesting fielding drill kept for the players, which Bali explained was a part of getting the execution right under immense pressure. “If it is a direct hit, you will get two points. If it goes inside the net, you will get three points. So, total 20 points you have to score.”

“But, where is the pressure in this? If you have scored 18 points, but if you made a mistake on the 19th point, you will go back to zero. The amount of pressure we put here in our sessions will automatically reflect during matches.”

“So, exactly when we are doing small drills, we are giving them targets, like in direct hits, if you hit this ball, you will get four points. If you miss a catch, it will be minus three. So, we are trying to create that atmosphere where we can put pressure on them and that is helping us a lot,” he elaborated.

As of now, hosts’ India occupies the fourth spot in the points table with four points, while Nat Sciver-Brunt led England comfortably sits on top of the tally with seven points. India need to win their remaining league games against England, New Zealand and Bangladesh to keep themselves in race for entering the semi-finals.

–IANS

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