She played a crucial role in stabilizing the innings with a solid half-century, and captain Harmanpreet Kaur emphasized that her main strategy was “rotating the strike” as India navigated a challenging situation to set a winning total of 201 for five against the UAE in the Women’s Asia Cup on Sunday. After India found themselves struggling at 52 for 3, Kaur (66 off 47 balls) forged two vital partnerships, contributing 54 runs off 39 balls with Jemimah Rodrigues (14) and 75 runs off 45 balls with Richa Ghosh (64 not out) to put India in a strong position. In reply, UAE could manage just 123 for 7.
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“It is a great feeling. When Jemi and I were batting, we spoke that we had to run hard rather than just going for risky shots. Our focus was on getting 7-8 runs per over,” Kaur said after the match.
“When Richa came, I just told her to keep watching the ball and see how wicket is playing. She batted beautifully. My role was just to stay on the pitch and keep rotating strike. Whenever loose balls come, convert them to the boundary.” While Kaur played the anchor’s role to perfection, it was Ghosh’s 29-ball knock which helped India score their first-ever 200-plus total in T20 cricket.
“Credit to Richa. Because of her we reached the target … today also we lost early wickets but we kept ourselves ready.” Richa Ghosh, who was adjudged the player of the match for her 29-ball unbeaten 64, credited Kaur for guiding her in the middle and said she just backed herself to make the most of the opportunity.
“Whenever I am playing with Harry [Harmanpreet] di, she tells me how the ball is coming on and how to play the shots. Whenever I get the opportunity, I want to back myself,” she said.
“The first four from a cover drive was my favourite.” UAE skipper Esha Rohit Oza said it was a learning experience for her team.
“It was a great experience, lots of learnings. How to build an innings, that is something we saw first hand, and how to finish games. This is what we need to work on.
We were never satisfied when playing such a big team. We need to make sure we need to take 10 wickets and not three. We put up a better score against a better side. We have one more game, and want to take the learnings to that game.”
(With inputs from PTI)
