IND vs PAK, Women’s T20 World Cup 2024: Mandhana reasons India’s slow approach vs Pakistan
India struggled to reach the winning target, losing four wickets and won with only seven balls to spare. The entire Indian innings had five boundaries compared to Pakistan’s eight.
Published : Oct 06, 2024 20:16 IST , Dubai - 2 MINS READ
India’s Smriti Mandhana plays a shot during the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup cricket match between Pakistan and India. | Photo Credit: GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP
India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana defended her team’s ultra-defensive batting approach in a chase of 106 runs against Pakistan which might have dented its chances of reaching the Women’s T20 World Cup semifinal.
India struggled to reach the winning target, losing four wickets and won with only seven balls to spare. The entire Indian innings had five boundaries compared to Pakistan’s eight. Shafali Varma played 35 balls for her 32, while Jemimah Rodrigues consumed 28 balls while reaching a painstaking 23.
It was skipper Harmanpreet Kaur who guided India to victory with an aggressive 29 before she retired hurt.
“A better start with the bat would have been good, but we will take that win,” said Mandhana at the post-match presentation ceremony admitting that they “did think about” Net Run Rate.
Before the Pakistan game, India’s NRR was -2.90 and after the win, it has marginally improved to -1.217 which is inferior compared to Pakistan’s -0.555.
“Me and Shafali could not time the ball,” she was forthright in her admission. “We didn’t want to end up losing a lot of wickets. We were a little calculative. The NRR is in our head,” she added.
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Mandhana however couldn’t provide an update on Harmanpreet’s on-field injury that forced her to retire hurt.
“Too soon to say anything. The medical team is looking at it. Hope it’s not too bad,” she said.
India’s next game is against Sri Lanka and Mandhana expects that her side will put up a better show than the Asia Cup final, which it lost.
“They [Sri Lanka] have been playing good cricket, but this game (against Pakistan) will give us the momentum.”
Pakistan skipper Fatima Sana felt that her team was 15 runs short of its eventual total of 105 for 8. “We were not up to the mark in the batting. We were 10-15 runs short.”