Harmanpreet Kaur was an elated captain as Indian women’s cricket team registered a thrilling eight-run victory over England in the second T20I at County Ground, Hove.
Asked to bat first, the visitors posted a modest 148/4 in 20 overs on the back of opener Shafali Verma’s 38-ball 48 and Skipper Harmanpreet’s 25-ball 31.
Defending the total, India were in a spot of bother before the spinners and fielders pulled things back to restrict the hosts to 140/8.
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Speaking after the game, Harmanpreet hailed her bowlers and the team's outstanding fielding effort.
"I will give credit to our bowlers, their field placement was important, and the fielding was outstanding," she said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
"We always want to win, this bubble thing is not that easy to adapt. We should give credit to our support staff, keeping us motivated."
According to Harmanpreet, each and every member of the side is aware of the role they have to play and that makes her job easy.
"Great effort by our whole team, everybody knows what to do and I'm really happy with the way we played. We got a very good start, but for two-three overs we didn't get runs. I had to go because we needed 150 on the board," she stated.
England captain Heather Knight wasn’t pleased with the outcome after dominating the contest.
"We were very good for large proportion of the game, the way we pulled it back with the ball was outstanding, showed character. Proud of the bowlers. But at 106-2 we shouldn't be losing," she said.
"As a batting group we've got to be better, it was a good wicket, need to take our singles and not put pressure on lower order. Strong line-up, but not been ruthless. Have to be better, shouldn't be losing those games."
With this victory, India levelled the three-match T20I series 1-1, with the decider to be held in Chelmsford on Wednesday (July 14).
"We can't lose the series but we're desperate to win it. Credit to India, taken it to the last game, but we'll be looking to win the series in Chelmsford," Knight said.
Deepti Sharma earned the Player-of-the-Match award for her crucial 24 not out and a wicket in the game.
"When me and Harmanpreet were batting, we were talking about taking it deep. As a bowling unit, the plan was to bowl dot balls, and bowl in partnerships, cut down boundaries," Deepti said.
(With PTI inputs)
