World Cup loss to India, still hurts for Nicole Bolton

Australian opening batter Nicole Bolton, ahead of the ODI series in India, revealed that the World cup loss still hurts. Apparently, for Bolton, the thought of playing against India flashbacks memory of England last year at ICC Women’s World Cup.

Favourites to lift the coveted championship, Australia, met a spirited Harmanpreet Kaur, who single-handedly decimated her opponents with a mammoth 171*.

From there on, India and Australia never met each other. The two sides meet next week at the Vadodara for the 3-match ODI series.

“It still burns every time I think about playing against India. It was my last experience against them and especially losing in a World Cup, it just hurts a bit more,” claimed Nicole Bolton while preparing for the Commonwealth Bank Tour of India.

“We had a point to prove against England in the Ashes and we did that at certain stages, so coming to India and being able to consolidate our form in both formats and win both formats will be high on our radar,” quoted the Perth Scorcher.

Bolton hopes to forget the past and focus on the future

Bolton concedes the fact that India is a force to reckon with when it comes to Women’s cricket. The 29-year old Australian opener went on to state that overhauling the Indians in their backyard would be a challenge.

“Times have changed and in the last few years, teams like India are bridging gap in challenging us. They’ve some really high-quality players and in their own backyard they’ll be a really hard team to come up against,” added Bolton.

The likes of Smriti Mandhana, Shikha Pandey, Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy have risen into the International front with their recent performances.

“Getting some momentum early on in the series will be crucial for us, but I feel the group in a good space with a couple of fresh faces which is always nice, and new staff who are settling in, so we’re looking forward to the first game,” Bolton says according to cricket.co.au.

That said, Bolton believes the side should put the World Cup loss behind them and focus on the task at hand.

“I think it’s really important. I know we’re coming up to a T20 World Cup but we don’t lose sight of what’s right in front of us and that’s one-day cricket,” stated the Western Australian.

“We want to make sure we’re performing in that format, it’s one we’ve been really consistent across but we have had some unsuccessful experiences of late so we’re pretty keen to turn that around,” concluded Nicole Bolton.

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