Team India tasted its first win in the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup, defeating arch-rivals Pakistan by 6 wickets on Sunday in Dubai. However, Harmanpreet Kaur & CO are still behind the women in green on the points table due to a poor net run-rate; -1.217.
A 58-run defeat against New Zealand put them at the bottom of the points table. The fixture against Pakistan was an opportunity to redeem themselves but their scoring rate in the chase of 106 hasn’t helped them much.
India vs Bangladesh Live Score 1st T20I
India struggled to reach the winning target losing four wickets with only seven balls to spare and the entire innings had five boundaries compared to Pakistan’s eight. Shafali Varma played 35 balls for her 32 while Jemimah Rodrigues consumed 28 balls while reaching a painstaking 23. It was skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, whose 29 before getting retired hurt finally guided India to victory.
However, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana defended her team’s ultra-defensive batting approach
“A better start with the bat would have been good, but we will take that win,” said Mandhana at the post-match presentation ceremony admitting that they ‘did think about’ net run rate.
Before the Pakistan game, India’s NRR was -2.90 and after the win, it has marginally improved to -1.217 which is inferior compared to Pakistan’s -0.555.
“Me and Shafali could not time the ball,” she was forthright in her admission. “We didn’t want to end up losing a lot of wickets. We were a little calculative. The NRR is in our head,” she added.
Mandhana however couldn’t provide a lot of updates on Harmanpreet’s on-field injury that forced her to retire hurt.
“Too soon to say anything. The medical team is looking at it. Hope it’s not too bad,” she said.
The next game is against Sri Lanka and Mandhana expects that India will put up a better show than the Asia Cup final, which they lost.
“They have been playing good cricket but this game (against Pakistan) will give us the momentum,” she concluded.
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