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Follow UsAfter an embarrassing loss at the hands of New Zealand in the opener, India had a lot of course corrections to make in terms of their net run rate, which got a massive hit. While they struggled to up the ante in the clash against Pakistan, they managed to increase that massively against Sri Lanka on October 9 (Wednesday).
Batting first, India put 172 runs on board, fuelled by a stellar 98-run opening partnership between Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma. That partnership was a massive boost for India’s net run rate, which helped them jump to second on the points table, with a much-improved run rate (+0.576).
“Yeah, of course. I think it's not something to be told. We all know that NRR is going on, and we keep playing it. And I think if you are playing in the Indian team, you don't need to tell us that you're below the NRR,” Shafali said in the post-match press conference.
“Because everyone is very mature and everyone is seeing everything. So, I think it's not something to say. But, of course, we have the NRR in our minds. And we'll keep a focus on it.”
While the duo weren’t finding boundaries with such ease, what they did well was running between the wickets. What was the rationale behind that?
“Yeah, of course. Like you said, we missed a lot of runs in the starting. I know about that. And the batsman has that in mind. And I think we're used to the condition. Maybe because of that, we're running well in between wickets,” she said.
“But we're trying to get the first run fast. Because the ground is very big, 70 meters, if I'm not wrong. So, we try to take the first run fast. It's very difficult to hit the sixes but we're thinking of taking the first run fast.”
Prior to this clash, India’s fielding efforts had let them down big time, with four drops in two games. But there was a considerable change when they took the field for the Sri Lanka clash, where the fielders looked much sharper than the previous two encounters. Shafali revealed that the team is trying to catch at least ‘30-40’ catches in the practise sessions.
“Everyone is going individually and working on fielding. Because we know this is the World Cup. It is very important to give 100%. And We are focusing on that. We are focusing on the process. The better the process, the better the result will be. So we are just thinking about that. We go and work on fielding. During practice sessions, we try to catch at least 30-40 catches. So that's what's going on,” she concluded.
India’s next match will be an important one in the group, as they take on Australia on October 13 in Sharjah.
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