Captain Harmanpreet Kaur was thrilled at yet another spectacle by the Indian team, who had chalked up consecutive wins in the Women’s World Cup in Colombo, by defeating neighbours Pakistan by a huge margin of 88 runs to re-establish their dominance over Pakistan in cricket. This also restored India’s advantage over Pakistan to 12-0 and reinforced once again that Pakistan truly does not deserve to be called India’s rivals. “Back home,” as she called it, Harmanpreet had sentiments that melted hearts, uttered at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“It was a very important game for all of us, and I’m sure everyone back home is happy as well,” she said at the post-match presentation, hinting at the significance of the win for the team in light of the current political climate existing between the two countries.
India’s lower order was once again let down by the belligerence of Richa Ghosh, who played a 20-ball 35* run cameo that helped propel India to a competitive 247 runs after a period of struggle when the Harmanpreet-led side was at 203 for 7.
Read Also:- Watch: Arshdeep Singh Stuns Internet With His Actions in 3rd Unofficial ODI
Pratika Rawal (31), Harleen Deol (46), and Jemimah Rodrigues (32) kept the innings going and ticking on the scoreboard until Richa put an end to it all. Adjudged Player of the Match for her 3/20 including wickets of Sadaf Shamas and Aliya Riyaz inside the first 10 overs, Kranti Gaud’s scintillating opening spell set the tone early on for Pakistan struggle.
Harmanpreet had this to say after the match: “To be honest, it wasn’t an easy pitch to bat. We just wanted to bat longer and see how many runs we can get. When we played here in the tri-series [in May], the pitches were different. But with the rain over the last two days, there was a bit of ‘hold’ on the pitch. The key was to keep wickets in the end so that we could execute.”
A couple of misfielding errors, in addition to Richa’s gloves nightmare, ensured two more boundaries, thus exhibiting outrightly substandard fielding from India. Harmanpreet was quick to point out fielding as an area that India needs to work upon fast, especially before the matches against South Africa and Australia, respectively scheduled on Thursday and Sunday.
“The fielding let us down. We got so many chances which we unfortunately dropped. But at the end of the day, when you win, you feel happy. A lot of things we need to work on, but right now I’m happy that we won this game. We just want to carry that momentum. Going back to India now, we know how those pitches will play. Let’s see what kind of best combination we can come up with to improve day by day,” went on Harmanpreet.
