 "Women's T20 World Cup 2024: Harmanpreet says India 'ticked all boxes' against Sri Lanka; Athapaththu laments missed chances")
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur said that “all the boxes were ticked” following her team’s 82-run win over Sri Lanka in a Group A match of the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup in Dubai on Wednesday. After a 58-run loss to New Zealand and a six-wicket win over Pakistan, India needed to beat Sri Lanka by a huge margin in order to keep their T20 World Cup semi-final hopes alive.
India rode on knocks from skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (52*), Smriti Mandhana (50) and Shafali Verma (43) to post 172/3 on the board after batting first. In Sri Lanka’s reply, Arundhati Reddy (3/19), Asha Sobhana (3/19) and Renuka Singh (2/16) were impressive, whereas Deepti Sharma and Shreyanka Patil also chipped in with a wicket each.
As it happened | India vs Sri Lanka, Women’s T20 World Cup
“When you play good cricket you always feel well, today all the boxes were ticked, we have been talking about our fielding and we took all our catches and that’s something very important to us. We did discuss before the game, if we are batting first what are the targets you need to set. These pitches are really tricky, we can’t go and execute. Today lot of things went according to plan,” Harmanpreet said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“We were thinking at least 160 and we set 170-plus. We are at that stage where we have to think about winning and even about NRR. We have to play good cricket first of all, our bowlers are doing well, they (Australia) are a good side and good to see our bowlers giving us wickets, they are in rhythm. As a captain you feel good when the team does well, it is a day to enjoy our success,” she added.
Also read | India's Women's T20 World Cup semi-final scenarios after win vs Sri Lanka
Harmanpreet, who was adjudged the Player of the Match, said that it was just about the momentum and acknowledged the fiery start that openers Shafali and Mandhana gave.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“We just wanted to go with the momentum. Smriti and Shafali gave us a very good start. We discussed that, we didn’t want to throw our wickets away. That’s exactly what the openers did and gave us that platform. Jemi and I just wanted to get 7-8 runs an over, and we just went with the flow,” she added.
‘I was in my zone’
The 35 year-old was pleased to have been in her own zone while batting on Wednesday. Harmanpreet, who had sustained a neck injury while batting against Pakistan, got to her fifty against the Lankans in 27 deliveries.
“It was one of those days where I was in my zone, I was thinking positively and hitting anything that was in my zone. These wickets aren’t very true for batting. You have to keep rotating strike and only when the ball is in the zone can you swing your bat. We were there today for the team, we trusted ourselves and were rotating strike, and that’s what worked for us,” added the Punjab-born cricketer.
‘We struggled in bowling, dropped a few catches’
Sri Lanka were outplayed in every department and captain Chamari Athapaththu was far from pleased with her team’s display. The loss was Sri Lanka’s third in as many matches in this edition and are now eliminated from the competition with a game to play. “We struggled even in the bowling, we dropped a few catches. Batters did not do their job, especially myself. Top-order got out early and it is tough to chase this. We have to go back to the white board and work on things. The first game is really important for this kind of tournament, it is a low-scoring game and as a batting unit we had to chase that target,” she said.
Chamari called on her team to play the “best cricket” against New Zealand on Saturday. “The players were down after that first game and I try to lift them, it happens in cricket and we have one game left, we have to play our best cricket against New Zealand. Very happy with my bowling unit, how they bowled in the last two games, not today,” she added.
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