India Women defeat Sri Lanka Women T20 World Cup: The semi-final ambitions are still alive for Captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s side as they clinch a comprehensive victory over the defending Asian champions in the T20 World cup match.
India women stand at the second position in the table with 4 points and better Net Run Rate than New Zealand women and Pakistan women.
India Women Beat Sri Lanka Women in T20 World Cup 2024:
Harmanpreet Kaur’s side achieved this by winning against Sri Lanka Women in Match 12 of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 and thereby keeping their hopes for semifinals alive. Continuing their winning streak the 2023 semi-finalists climbed down the table and away from the newly crowned Asian champions on all aspects by scoring 172 runs in the 2nd innings, which is the highest score in the tournament till now.
At last Smriti Mandhana was able to deliver her part of the bargain when it was really needed as she struck an impressive half century but it was the whole Indian team who went spectacular with captain Harmapreet Kaur who finished with 52 runs from just 27 balls in the T20 World cup match.
However, to help the cause, Indian bowlers were able to contain Sri Lanka to 90 runs, thus making the margin of victory 82 runs.
Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka Women Captain):
“In reality, we were poor in the bowling department. Missed few catches. Bowlers not bowling to the right line and length. Even the batters didn’t perform their respective duties. Me and Harshita and Vishmi, the top order went down in such a period and it was tough to chase this target thereafter. Time to go back to the drawing board and reassess the plan.”
“Well I, for one, agree. The first game is particularly crucial for such types of tournaments. In Pakistan, we lost, it was a low score contest. I mean I thought we had as a batting unit done enough to chase it down. After that the dressing room was down, not that sour, however these things happen in cricket. We still have one more game to come, do not forget that. We have at least have to absorb this thought and do well against New Zealand.”
“It’s not that I am not satisfied with my performance on my bad day, my satisfaction concerning my bowling, how it has been done in the last 2 matches. We need to work more on our batting and bowling in preparation for the last match.”
Harmanpreet Kaur (India Women Captain):
“Yeah, for sure. Cricket is such a game where the player has to be satisfied with his contribution. I think Yes is the answer to all the questions posed today. We batted, we bowled, we put in the most important discipline and that was our fielding. Earlier we spoke about the fact that we are concentrating more on our fielding and we are pleased to say that we are able to do that and that is to take every catch, which is still very useful for us.”
“Well, we did talk about it before the T20 world cup match that what score we want to set if we are batting first and what is the number of overs required to chase if we are bowling too. That said, these pitches are quite difficult. One can’t just strategize and implement it without any changes because, as we saw in the T20 match, in pitched attack we lost two wickets in a row. That’s something that has to be improved, continuously.”
“It was fortunate that today, a lot also, went just as we had planned. Our turn came in batting first, and our aim was to score at least 160 but we overshot the score to a good 170+, which was very important. After all that when you are in this kind of a situation, it’s not just about winning, it’s about preserving the net run rate as well.”
“Evidently. We certainly need to place an emphasis on one thing and one thing alone, good cricket. Our bowlers are doing very well. The opposition is a very good opposition, but one special thing is that our bowlers seem to be in good shape and are making key kills when necessary.”
“And everyone knows we are bowling pretty well, we just have to keep that up and not really care who is in front of us. As I mentioned, these wickets are tricky and you never know when things can just go your way.”