Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 26 India captain Harmanpreet Kaur credited her bowlers for setting up the team’s eight-wicket victory in the third T20I of the five-match series against Sri Lanka, saying their disciplined effort with the ball laid the foundation for the hosts to take an unassailable series lead.
In what was the first international women’s game at the Greenfield International Stadium, Renuka Singh Thakur and Deepti Sharma picked seven wickets between themselves as India restricted Sri Lanka to 112/7, and was followed by opener Shafali Verma smashing an unbeaten 79 to complete the chase with 6.4 overs to spare.
“I think the contribution from our bowlers has been a highlight because in T20 cricket, the bowling is very important. If you keep ticking all the boxes in your bowling department, you have more chances to win the game.
“Today, we are in this position because of our bowlers. Credit goes to all our bowling lineup for the way they bowled in this series. They are the ones who always give us a breakthrough, first six overs -- their top-order is very important to get the wicket,” said Harmanpreet in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Renuka got into the playing eleven in place of a rested Arundhati Reddy, and Harmanpreet was pleased with her return to the side. “Today we wanted to go with Renuka, so that she can give us that breakthrough. First over was not something we were expecting. After that, how she came back and took those crucial four wickets -- that is something we were looking for.”
Harmanpreet further said the team’s dominant showing against Sri Lanka reflected their bid to raise standards and play more aggressively in the build-up to next year’s T20 World Cup, to be played in England.
“It was a great series for all of us. That's what we discussed when we got together after the World Cup: we have to raise our standard. Be a little more aggressive in T20, we all know the T20 World Cup is coming up, this is the right time to push ourselves, so really happy with the overall performance,” she said.
Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu acknowledged her team's batting struggles throughout the series, but took note of positives in individual performances from Imesha Dulani and Kavisha Dilhari.
"I feel we are not playing our best cricket throughout the tournament. So, as a batting unit, we struggle a lot. We need to improve those areas. We are playing our best batting lineup. For the last six months, we have been using those players as a batting unit.
“We try a few things in the bowling unit, but we always trust our youngsters and top-order, still we are not finding the good way in this format. We gave an opportunity to Imesha Dulani today, she batted really good in the middle-order. Kavisha batted really well. These are the positives in today's game.
“Still, we try to find a few players before the World Cup, because we rest 5-6 players in our team. We need to improve those areas before the next World Cup. We have two bilateral series coming up, so I hope we can perform in both bilateral series,” she said.
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