ICC Women's T20 World Cup: Batters can’t continue to make silly mistakes - Harmanpreet

The India captain rues the mistakes by her batting unit that disallowed the team from building on a good start against New Zealand.

Shafali Verma was the player of the match for her 34-ball 46.

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Thursday called on her team’s batters not to make “silly mistakes” as they gear up for tougher matches at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.

India’s batting in the middle-order hasn’t shone brightly in the tournament. In the contest against New Zealand, India again posted a below-par total, scoring 133 for eight. That the team still managed to win and enter the semifinals was due to a splendid performance from the bowlers. “It’s a great feeling when your team performs day in, day out. Still we made the same mistakes after a good first 10 overs, we got a good start but couldn’t carry the momentum,” Harmanpreet said after the match.

T20 WC | REPORT - IND vs NZ

“We can’t make silly mistakes with harder games coming up. Shafali [Verma] is giving us good starts, her initial runs are crucial for us,” she said.

Shafali was adjudged the player of the match for scoring a 34-ball 46 and the 16-year-old was elated with her performance. “Feeling good, very happy with the performance, want to continue doing this. I waited for the loose balls and converted those,” said Shafali.

'Fantastic job'

New Zealand captain Sophie Devine commended her team’s bowling effort for restricting India to a small total. “I thought we did a fantastic job to restrict them after Shafali’s start. We adapted to the conditions, adjusted our lines and lengths, tied them down,” she said.

“The way the team nearly closed out the game was fantastic, Amelia Kerr did a fantastic job to nearly win it for us in the end. We certainly can’t dwell on this or sulk about it for too long, we have Bangladesh next.”