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The White Ferns and India will make history when they play their ICC World Twenty20 semi-final at Trent Bridge Nottingham before South Africa play Pakistan. It sees the coming together of men’s and women’s teams in a world tournament for the first time.
The White Ferns go into the match as firm favourites after dominating their Group and comfortably beating India in a pre-tournament warm up match.
In-form captain Aimee Watkins will lead a confident team stacked with all-rounders.
"We were pleased to finish top qualifier," said Watkins. "We played India in a warm-up so we've got a good idea of what we're going to come up against."
They will be hoping that Suzie Bates can continue to fire at the top of the batting order. Bates is the tournaments leading run scorer with 125.
It has only been three months since the team lost in the final of the ICC World Cup final – beaten by England.
Coach Gary Stead says the team has learnt from the situation and is better for the experience, "I'm not going to say exactly what we'll be doing, we're keeping that to ourselves but we have ways of dealing with it.
"We're certainly going to discuss the extra pressure, it's about techniques and how to try and deal with new factors like the crowd noise."
India made it through to the semis on the back of two wins – losing only to the tournament favourites England.
They have looked vulnerable with the bat and relied heavily on the individual performances of Anjum Chopra.
Chopra knows the batting is a concern, but hopes India will come good in Nottingham: "Irrespective of how you have reached the semi-finals or what scores you have got, it's going to be who plays better on that day."
Indian batter Mithali Raj acknowledges they have been inconsistent but still thinks they are in with a chance, "On a given day we can beat anybody, even the world champions. Other days, we can perform badly.”
The match is on 18 June at 1:30pm (UK time), 19 June 12:30am (NZ time).
