Harmanpreet, bowlers demolish Sri Lanka to hand India big NRR boost
India put on their best batting show and then were clinical with the ball and on the field to send the Asia Cup champions packing from the tournament
India put on their best batting show and then were clinical with the ball and on the field to send the Asia Cup champions packing from the tournament
Scorer: Sudeep Poojar | Commentator: Srinidhi Ramanujam
That's it from us today. Hope you all enjoyed our coverage. Come back tomorrow for the contest between Bangladesh and West Indies. Until then, I am Srinidhi Ramanujam signing off on behalf of S Sudarshanan and Sudeep Poojar. Take care and good night!
Athapaththu: "We struggled even in the bowling. We dropped catches. We didn't bowl in the right areas. Batters including me and Vishmi didn't do a good job. We have to rethink what we have to do and bounce back. The first game is important in this tournament. It was low-scoring and as a batting unit, we had to chase [but we didn't]. After that the dressing room was a little down. I try to lift them. [On takeaways] Happy with the bowling unit in the last two games. We have to improve our batting."
Harmanpreet is the Player of the Match: "We just wanted to go with the momentum, Shafali and Smriti gave us a good start. Credit goes to them. They were there on the pitch, calculative, didn't throw the wicket away. Jemi and I, we just wanted to score seven-eight runs an over. It was one of the days when I was in my zone, whenever ball was in my zone, I went hard. I was only thinking about positives. This wicket was not true to batting, you have to keep rotating the strike. Once ball is in your zone you can go for it. It's not like you can keep swinging the bat. We were there and didn't throw the wicket away. Really happy for the team."
She adds: "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 discuss before the game if we are batting first what's the target we want to set and if we are fielding what should be the score, but these wickets are tricky. In between we lost two wickets back to back. Today a lot of things went according to plan, we were thinking of 160 and we posted 170. You have to think about NRR also when you are in this position. We have to play good cricket [vs Australia]. Good to see our bowlers getting in good rhythm and giving us breakthroughs. These wickets are tricky as I said. As a captain, happy we played good cricket."
Sampath tells us this is India's biggest win by runs at the Women's T20 World Cup.
India outplay Sri Lanka with the bat and ball to win this crucial game by 82 runs. With NRR of 0.560, they go past New Zealand to occupy the second position in Group A. A strong start from Shafali and Mandhana in the powerplay set the tone for India and then Harmanpreet's 27-ball 50 lifted them to a mammoth 172 for 3 on a slow, low Dubai pitch. Renuka struck twice and Shreyanka removed Athapaththu inside the powerplay to rattle the top order. After that, Asha and Arundhati picked up three wickets each to close out the game. India were excellent on the field. Renuka, Radha, Shafali all of them held on to the chances
KDU Prabodhani c Mandhana b Sharma 9 (25m 17b 0x4 0x6) SR: 52.94
final over from Deepti
"I think the skill has failed us when it has been really important," Sri Lanka head coach Ratnayake said after defeat to India
India needed a big win to keep their World Cup campaign on track, and their captain delivered a blockbuster like old times
They got the big win they needed against Sri Lanka. What next?
India put on their best batting show and then were clinical with the ball and on the field to send the Asia Cup champions packing from the tournament
Mandhana revealed that there's no fixed batter for the No. 3 spot, and the candidate would be chosen based on conditions and match situation