'We wanted to win series at any cost': Kaur

India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur during her 59 not out against New Zealand in Ahmedabad yesterday

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Tuesday said her team wanted to win the three-match Women's ODI series against New Zealand "at any cost" after a forgettable outing in the recent T20 World Cup.

T20 World Cup failure

India failed to reach the semi-finals of the T20 showpiece in the UAE and entered the third and final ODI against the Kiwis with the series tied at 1-1 here. Smriti Mandhana (100 off 122 balls), who wasn't able to showcase her class at the top of the order in the two previous games, made her 8th ODI hundred century, the most by an Indian in the format, while Kaur remained not out on 59 as India won the match by six wickets.

"It was important for us as we wanted to win this series at any cost," Kaur said at the post-match press conference.

She added, "As I said in the morning, we discussed a lot of things and really happy we could execute today. Whenever we play, we always want to give our 100 per cent but sometimes things don't go your way.

"As a professional cricketer you have to keep pushing yourself and keep going. We discussed these things in the team meeting so really happy we could come back after that loss in the last game."

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The captain praised Mandhana for her fine knock, which paved the way for a successful chase of a target of 233. "Would like to give credit to Smriti, she was struggling early on but she managed to get runs. Really happy about our partnership."

She also said the team needs to work a lot more to become the best fielding side in the world.

‘Fielding needs work'

"Always talking about our fielding, that's an area we need to keep working hard. We are working hard but just waiting for the results till the time we can be the best fielding side."

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