Women's Cricket World Cup: The White Ferns' secret weapon for crucial India clash

Amy Satterthwaite in action. Photo / Photosport

The White Ferns know they will be facing a different India on Thursday to the one they almost swept in their five-match series last month, but remain confident of toppling what they expect will be a tougher challenge in their third World Cup match.

The hosts will be hoping for more of the same from their new secret bowling weapon Amy Satterthwaite, who admits she was surprised to see her name up with the bowling leaders in the tournament so far after her superb 3-25 to help the Ferns to victory over Bangladesh.

"It's not too often I get to have a bowl, so it was nice to have the opportunity," Satterthwaite told the Country Sport Breakfast.

"I can't say my first ball was where I wanted it to land, but you take the wickets don't you?

"I was hoping to have the best run-scoring [figures] but I'll take it and you contribute to where you can for the team. We got off to a pretty good start the other day and it was nice to be able to peg them back in a way."

After a shaky start to the tournament, including an upset loss first-up against the West Indies, the White Ferns are facing a crucial run of games in their hopes to make it to the semifinal stage.

They face an increasingly confident Indian side, who have star batswoman Smriti Mandhana back in the top order and seem to have shaken off rust and quarantine.

Satterthwaite says they won't be taking India lightly, despite beating them 4-1 in their series before the tournament.

"We've certainly got some great confidence and some good form, I guess, against them of late which is always really pleasing and nice to take into a game like that. But we know what a class outfit they are and they were missing one or two of their key players as well in that series.

"I'm sure that they will improve as the tournament goes on and will be better off from having played a lot of cricket in New Zealand before the tournament started."

She added that having seen India's best lineup against Pakistan ahead of their match will boost their chances.

"I think it was probably nice to see what they see as their strongest team and what they're going to put out and hopefully then we can have a really good look at that and see how we're going to combat it.

"They'll certainly be a tough team to beat as we know. We saw that in the first game; you can't take anyone lightly. I think our next four games are against the previous World Cup four semifinalists, so we know we've got stiff competition ahead of us, but we're looking forward to the challenge."

• The White Ferns take on India on Thursday at 2pm.