Smriti Mandhana says India did not focus on NRR against Pakistan
Bengaluru: India Women’s Smriti Mandhana plays a shot during the second ODI cricket match between India Women and South Africa Women, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Photo: PTI)
Indian vice-captain Smriti Mandhana defended her team’s ultra-defensive batting approach in a 106-run chase against Pakistan, which could have massively damaged their chances of reaching the semi-finals of the Women’s T20 World Cup.
India struggled to reach the winning target losing four wickets with just 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 to reach a difficult 23.
Click here to contact us via WhatsApp
It was skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, whose 29 before retirement eventually led India to victory.
“A better start with the bat would have been good, but we will get that win,” Mandhana said at the post-match presentation ceremony, admitting that they had “thought about net run-rate”.
Before the match against Pakistan, India’s NRR was -2.90 and after the win, it has improved marginally to -1.217, which is lower compared to Pakistan’s -0.555.
“Me and Shafali couldn’t time the ball,” she admitted honestly. “We didn’t want to lose many wickets. We were a bit calculating. The NRR is in our heads,” she added.
However, she could not provide much information about Harmanpreet’s injury on the field, due to which she had to retire injured.
‘Too early to say anything. The medical team is looking at it. I hope it’s not too bad,” she said.
The next match is against Sri Lanka and Mandhana expects India to put up a better show than the Asia Cup final, which they lost.
“They have played good cricket but this match (against Pakistan) will give us the momentum.”
Pakistan skipper Fatima Sana felt her team fell 15 runs short of their final total of 105 for 8.
“We were not up to par in batting. We were 10-15 runs short.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First publication: Oct 07, 2024 | 12:01 am IST