India vs New Zealand | Not a decent total but our bowlers fought well, says Harmanpreet Kaur

The Indian women’s cricket team succumbed to their second loss in the ongoing T20I series against New Zealand as they fell to a narrow four-wicket loss at Eden Park in Auckland. Despite a brilliant batting display from youngster Jemimah Rodrigues and Smriti Mandhana, the hosts’ managed to chase down the target of 136 set by the Indians in the first innings.

India’s T20I skipper, Harmanpreet Kaur, admitted that her squad were not up to the mark against their Kiwi opposition but gave credit to her bowlers who fought till the very end of the match.

“We should give credit to our bowlers. It was not a decent total but still they fought really well.

“If you want to win any game, you should have a decent total on the board. We were 20 runs short. When you have a short total, we can’t expect the bowlers to bowl all good overs. The (New Zealand) batters have also come to play. They played good shots. New Zealand have played better cricket than us but there is still one more game, and we should learn from our mistakes,” Kaur said in a post-match interview.

Meanwhile, New Zealand opener Suzie Bates opined that one of the home team’s senior batters should have stuck around till the latter stage of the second innings and not allowed the game to go right down to the wire.

“We didn’t make it easy on ourselves taking it to the last over. One of our senior batters should have stuck in till the end. But it is good to see Hannah Rowe and Leigh Kasperek finish off in front of a big crowd. “they (crowd) cheered for the dot balls (laughs). Feels a bit like an away crowd with how loud the Indians get. We love it. The atmosphere in both games, we just thrive off it. It is so good see them to come out both teams," Bates, who was awarded man of the match for her fighting 62, said at a post-match interview.

Cricket FootBall Kabaddi

Basketball Hockey

SportsCafe