Harmanpreet Kaur believes India must improve their dot-ball count before the Women's T20 World Cup semi-finals.
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Harmanpreet Kaur believes India must improve their dot-ball count before the Women’s T20 World Cup semi-finals. With a rain-affected win over Ireland on Monday, India are on set to face title favourites and defending winners Australia in the semi-finals, barring a huge England defeat against Pakistan on Tuesday afternoon. After facing 51 dot balls in their loss to Group B leaders England on Sunday, India showed some improvement against Ireland, scoring 155 for 6, paced by Smriti Mandhana’s T20I career-high score of 87. But they want to cut it even further, especially against a team like Australia. Ireland were 44 for 2 at the end of the Powerplay, compared to India’s 42 for 0; India had only reached 63 for 1 at the midway point of their innings.
“Against England, we played too many dot balls,” Harmanpreet said. “Things like that we have already been discussing in team meetings. But sometimes, when the other team is bowling too well, at the end of the day, these wickets are something when you score 150, that’s a par score for you. World Cup games are always something where both teams are always under pressure. I think these matches if 150 is on the board, you always [have] the upper hand. We are not putting too much pressure on ourselves. We are just going [out] there and understanding what conditions are there and just playing according to the situation. “Dot balls are something which [are] already worrying us. In the next game, we would love to see some improvement in that area also.”
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As the rain stopped play in the ninth over of the chase, India could have been under even more duress, with Ireland five runs behind the DLS par. They had the greatest total of the week’s fixtures, but Ireland were sluggish to respond to the weather suddenly turning wild at St. George’s Park in Gqeberha after a week of otherwise brilliant conditions. Harmanpreet stepped in at No. 3 after Amy Hunter held on at deep square leg to dismiss Shafali Verma for 24. Mandhana hit her stride shortly after her captain surpassed 3000 T20I runs by flicking Orla Prendergast past midwicket for two. Mandhana had gained control by the time Harmanpreet departed for 13 from 20 in the 16th over, cleanly caught by Prendergast dashing in from deep midwicket.
“Initially I tried a few shots, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to convert those shots into the boundary,” Harmanpreet said. “Sometimes a player is having a good day and then everybody was dropping her catches and she just wanted to express herself. She told me, ‘better to give me singles than you taking risks’ and initially, that’s what we did. After 15 overs, then you have to take a risk from both sides, and then that’s what we decided to do. After a few shots, she played really well, and because of her innings, we were able to score 150 because Ireland were really bowling well today and they were not giving us loose balls.
