Women’s World T20 | We are expecting Smriti Mandhana to play well, says Harmanpreet Kaur

Choosing to bat first, India lost the wicket of Tanya Bhatia, who opened in the absence of Mithali Raj, early in the second over with only five runs on the board. Jemimah Rodrigues also failed to impress with the bat and went back into the pavilion for only six off nine balls. However, the Indian girls recovered because of a 50-plus stand for the third wicket between captain Harmanpreet Kaur and vice-captain Smriti Mandhiana. Both played attacking shots after settling down at the crease and Mandhana got to her highest T20I score of 83 off just 55 balls while Kaur got out for 43. There was not much contribution from the lower-middle order as India managed to put up 167/8 in 50 overs.

Speaking about the team’s performance after the game, the Indian skipper said that she enjoyed batting together with Mandhana who was awarded the Player of the Match for her blistering knock in the game. 

“We always enjoy when batting together. She (Mandhana) played really well and that is what we are expecting from her,” Kaur said during the presentation ceremony.

When asked to choose between the wins against New Zealand and Australia in the ongoing tourney, Kaur replied, “Both again, they are good teams and you have to perform well. Credit to the girls for the way we played today. We worked really hard, today the fielding coach must be happy with the way we fielded, proud of the girls."

The Indian fielders put up a better show than the Pakistan game where they were quite sloppy on the field. The bowlers managed to bowl the Aussies out inside 20 overs which will be a confidence booster for the side going into the semifinals of the World T20. Anuja Patil picked up three wickets for India while Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav and Poonam Yadav managed to claim two wickets each as the Australian women got all-out for 119 in 19.4 overs handing India a 48-run win.

After getting the Player of the Match award, Mandhana said, “The way we bowled and fielded today was probably the best we did all tournament. In that aspect, this win was special.”

“Quite relieved as I was getting starts but not converting them. Wanted to go out there and score big runs. Glad that I could do it today. Whenever the ball hits my pads, I always think it's out, don't know why (laughs) but she (Veda) told me to take the review. Thanks to her, we got 20-30 runs extra.”