"We did think about NRR but we were a little calculative", Smriti Mandhana

Smriti Mandhana (Pic: File Pic)

Team India's vice-captain Smriti Mandhana defended her side's defensive approach against arch-rivals Pakistan in the Women's T20 World Cup 2024. The "Women in Blue" struggled to chase the target of 106 runs as they lost four wickets with just seven deliveries to spare.

Shafali Varma played 35 balls for her 32 while Jemimah Rodrigues consumed 28 balls while reaching a painstaking 23.

Team India's skipper Harmanpreet Kaur smashed 29 runs just before retiring hurt during India's win.

"A better start with the bat would have been good, but we will take that win," said Mandhana at the post-match presentation ceremony admitting that they "did think about" net run rate.

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Before the Pakistan game, India's NRR was -2.90 and after the win, it has marginally improved to -1.217 which is inferior compared to Pakistan's -0.555.

"Me and Shafali could not time the ball," she was forthright in her admission. "We didn't want to end up losing a lot of wickets. We were a little calculative. The NRR is in our head," she added.

Smriti Mandhana was anyway not able to give much input about her skipper's injury. "Too soon to say anything. Medical team is looking at it. Hope it's not too bad," she said.

Ahead of their next Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match against Sri Lanka, Smriti Mandhana expects that India will put up a better show compared to how they performed in the Asia Cup final.

"They have been playing good cricket but this game (against Pakistan) will give us the momentum."

Pakistan skipper Fatima Sana felt that her team was 15 runs short of their eventual total of 105 for 8. "We were not up to the mark in the batting. We were 10-15 runs short."

(With PTI Inputs)