A Win Against Pakistan Is Always Special: Harmanpreet Kaur

Cape Town: India women started their T20 World Cup campaign with a win by defeating Pakistan women by seven wickets in Newlands, Cape Town, on February 12.

Batting first, Pakistan posted 149/4 in 20 overs, with Bismah Maroof top-scoring with a 55-ball 68* while Ayesha Naseem added a quick 25-ball 43*. Radha Yadav registered figures of 4-0-21-2.

In reply, Jemimah Rodrigues’ unbeaten 38-ball 53 helped India chase down the target (151/3) with an over to spare. Shafali Verma chipped in with a handy 33 while Richa Ghosh scored a quick 20-ball 31*. Nashra Sandhu took two wickets.

Post the match, India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said that it was a sensible batting display from Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh.

“It was a good game. Pakistan batted well but we wanted to win and Jemi and Richa played really well. Very sensible batting from both of them. All the players are keen to do well for the team. Whoever gets the opportunity they are pushing themselves. It’s a good sign for us. Win against Pakistan is always special,” said Harmanpreet.

“Good game, crowd was fantastic, got good support. We would love to spend some time in the nets and sort out the things we didn’t do well today before the West Indies game. It’s important to keep doing the right things in the nets too,” she added.

Jemimah, who was awarded the Player of the Match for her match-winning knock, said that her half-century is a special one and added that she is happy that the Women in Blue won the match to keep their momentum high.

“I don’t know what to say. I knew building partnerships, taking it deep we’d end up chasing it. Richa and I have built a partnership against Bangladesh, and we could do this today. This innings is really special to me, I haven’t been getting runs for a while but I’ve stuck to the process,” said Jemimah.

“God is grateful, he takes care of the rest. I want to dedicate this to my parents, they are here at the stadium. This knock goes out to them. We just needed 10 an over, we were going over by over and we knew they would bowl a loose ball so that is what we had to punish. We knew we’d win if we stayed till the end. We’re very happy we’ve won this, momentum is on our side and now we just need to do the simple things correctly and consistently,” she added.

India women will next take on West Indies women on February 15.