NEWS
Follow UsAfter leading the side to two consecutive wins, an injured Harmanpreet Kaur didn’t take the field against UP Warriorz on Wednesday, paving the way for Natalie Sciver-Brunt to lead the team. However, Mumbai Indians couldn’t sustain the pressure exerted by UP Warriorz’ Kiran Navgire and Grace Harris, with the game being done and dusted in less than 17 overs in the run chase.
Mumbai Indians Head Coach Charlotte Edwards credited UP’s planning and the pressure they put on them but added that facing such a loss at the start of the tournament was a much better proposition than facing this later on.
“Unfortunately, they weren’t available for selection today. Harman (Harmanpreet Kaur) should be back on Saturday. We are just waiting on (Shabnim) Ismail. It shouldn’t be too long, but we don’t want to bring her back too early. I am really confident that Harman will be back against RCB,” Edwards said in the post-match press conference.
“I didn’t think Navgire was going to open. The injury gave them the license to put her up the order. We weren’t really planning for her in the batting. Also, Ismail has been so prolific for us in the powerplay. So we did have to tinker things around, and we have to learn that today. I am pleased it happened with us today, because you don’t want it to happen in the latter stages of the tournament. We have got to be better than we were today.”
Grace Harris and Sophie Ecclestone put a break on the run-scoring tempo in the first innings, not letting the likes of Yastika Bhatia and Nat Sciver-Brunt score freely. Sure, Hayley Matthews managed to keep things going at one end, but she also batted at a strike rate of 117. Edwards admitted that the wicket was a little slow when they batted and it became better later.
“Chasing is a lot easier than setting a target. The wicket looked quite slow when we batted. We did well to get to 160-odd considering that we were 13 in four overs. It quickened up and I thought Kiran Navgire played brilliantly tonight and took the game away from us in that period. We never quite recovered and we have to go away now and think about what we need to do when players get aggressive and hit a lot of sixes. It is a good learning for us,” the former England skipper said.
“We talk to our batters about being aggressive, but they struggled with the pace of the wicket. Yastika going after the bowler in one over got us the impetus. I was pleased with 160 at the halfway stage. We were beaten by a very special innings and we didn’t quite recover from it,” she added.
