Smriti Mandhana and Shreyanka Patil celebrate a wicket
Photo : BCCIWomen/X
India will face Sri Lanka in a must win ICC Women’s T20 World Cup encounter at Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday. Following their loss against New Zealand in the opening encounter, the Women In Blue bounced back in style with a win against archrival Pakistan.
Indian bowlers did exceptionally well as they restricted Pakistan to a paltry 105 runs. Arundhati Reddy recorded the best figure as she took three wickets to rattle the Pakistan batting lineup.
But despite the low target, Indian batters needed 18.5 overs to reach their destination. Harmanpreet Kaur and his girls attracted severe criticism for their approach as Net Run Rate could play a major role in the qualification for the semifinals.
India are with Sri Lanka, Pakistan, New Zealand and Australia in Group A and four teams from both groups will advance to the semifinals.
Ahead of the Sri Lanka clash, Smriti Mandhana brushed aside the NRR concerns as she defended her team citing that the playing conditions in the UAE are very difficult to other conditions.
As quoted by the ICC official website, "It [NRR] was playing in our minds last match against Pakistan.
"But the conditions are very different here in UAE and scoring quickly isn't quite easy."
"The first priority is to win the match and it's a balance between what is best for the team and what we can do in terms of NRR. I started off fine last game but I consumed dot balls later on, which was irritating for me.
"We can't go out there thinking we are going to attack any opposition and cruise, conditions and outfield are difficult. The first priority is winning than thinking of NRR in these situations. The group is definitely tricky, but it's just the start, we don't want to think too much ahead. One day at a time."
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