Today lot of things went according to plan: Harmanpreet Kaur

India finally had a complete game in the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup in the UAE. The Women in Blue suffered a humiliating in their first match against New Zealand. They defeated Pakistan but their performance was far from convincing. 

However, on October 9 (Wednesday), India hammered Sri Lanka by 82 runs in Dubai. They first posted 172/3 in the first innings and then dismissed Sri Lanka for just 90 in the second innings. 

India’s NRR (+0.576) has gone above Pakistan's (+0.555) and New Zealand’s (-0.050), but they still need to beat Australia in their final group game to give themselves a chance of qualifying for the semis.

“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,” said Harmanpreet Kaur, who herself smacked 52 off 27 deliveries in the first innings.

“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. 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.”

Talking about the much-awaited game against Australia, Indian captain Harmanpreet added: “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.”

This was also Harmanpreet's fastest fifty in the 20-over format for India. “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. 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.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka have lost all their three games and are out of the tournament. “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.” said Sri Lanka.

“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. 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.

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