All boxes were ticked, says happy Harmanpreet Kaur

They were left stunned as they didn’t expect India to come so hard at them

It seemed as if the Indian coaching staff had a magic wand in their hand. There was a remarkable improvement in batting, bowling and fielding as the Indian women entered the fray with determination and purpose against Sri Lanka on Wednesday evening. Their target was to register a big win and they achieved it with aplomb. The team that was so listless in the first two games went on to display the type of performance that has raised their hopes of making it to the semi-finals of the Women’s T20 World Cup. Sri Lanka were no pushovers, but they were overwhelmed by the superb all-round performance by the Indian team. They were left stunned as they didn’t expect India to come so hard at them.

Not an easy path

However, by no stretch of imagination can it be presumed that India’s path to the semi-finals be considered easy. There are many permutations and possibilities in Group A, and the team management will need to keep an eye on the other matches to plan their strategy for the last league match against Australia on Sunday. As luck would have it, India have three days to rest, allowing ample time to recuperate and also draw out a workable plan going into the must-win final league.

There were many positives from the win over the hapless Sri Lankans, including the return to form of the top three batters, the performance of the bowling unit, and, most notably, the high standard of fielding. There were some excellent catches taken, the most noteworthy being by Radha Yadav, who was substituting for the fatigued skipper Harmanpreet Kaur. Her brilliant catch at the start of the Sri Lankan chase set the tone for India to decimate their rivals.

Harmanpreet was named Player of the Match for her scintillating 27-ball half-century that propelled India to a total well beyond Sri Lanka’s reach. After winning the game, the delighted skipper said: “When you play good cricket, you always feel well. All boxes were ticked today. Happy we took all the catches, which is very important for us.”

‘We did not panic’

Harmanpreet was also pleased that the players followed the plan to a ‘T’ and that produced the desired result. She said: “Today, a lot of things went according to plan. We did discuss before the game what target to set if we are batting first and how to defend if we fielded. But these wickets are tricky. In between we lost two wickets quickly, but we did not panic and Jemi [Jemimah Rodrigues] and I rebuilt the innings. We were thinking of 160 and posted 170. From that position, we could put Sri Lanka under pressure. One has to think about [improving] the NRR too when you are in this position. I am happy that we achieved most of the things we had planned.” 

On her unbeaten 52 off 27 balls, Harmanpreet said that she was happy to contribute with the bat just three days after retiring hurt against Pakistan. “I was in my zone and I wanted to be there for the team and keep rotating the strike and whenever the ball was in my zone, I wanted to go for it. You can’t keep swinging and hope the ball will come onto your bat. You have to keep trusting yourself, stay in for a long time, and then execute [big shots] later on,” she said.

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