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India aims for fourth straight Asia Cup

Dubai: The Indian women’s cricket team will attempt to win the Asia Cup for an unprecedented fourth time with skipper Mithali Raj and pace spearhead Jhulan Goswami also aiming for individual milestones in the tournament starting on May 2 in Sri Lanka.

The tournament — also featuring Sri Lanka, Pakistan and debutants Bangladesh — will be played till May 11 and India will take on Bangladesh in the opener.

Mithali is hoping to put up some good batting displays which will help her rise in the all-time leading ODI run-scorers’ list.

Mithali currently lies seventh with 2,776 runs with England’s Claire Taylor (2,995) and New Zealand’s Emily Drumm (2,844) above her in the fifth and sixth places respectively.

Australia’s Belinda Clark, with 4,844 runs, is the all-time leading run-scorer.

Meanwhile, Jhulan, who won the ICC Women’s Player of the Year award last year, is set to become the second Indian after Neetu David and fourth overall in the history of the game to take 100 ODI wickets.

The 24-year-old now has 96 wickets from 79 ODIs.

The tournament will be played on a double-league format with the top two teams qualifying for the final.

Mithali said the Asia Cup will be the start of a tough season for her team in the run-up to the World Cup.

“It’s definitely part of our preparations for the World Cup and it is the start of the season for us,” she said.

India won the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka in April 2004, in Pakistan in 2005-06 and in India in 2006-07.

It has shown incredible consistency in winning all its 15 matches, while Sri Lanka has won four of the 15 matches and Pakistan is winless from eight games. — PTI

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