Indian team on Saturday (August 6) secured a spot in the final of the women’s cricket competition in the ongoing Commonwealth Games with a thrilling four-run victory over England in the semi-final at Edgbaston.
After the victory, India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur admitted that she would be closely following the second semi-final between Australia and New Zealand to form their strategies for the gold medal match.
Notably, Australia got the better of New Zealand in the second semi-final to book a date with India in the final on Sunday (August 7).
"I definitely will, to learn from it and make our plans for the final. I had to be fired up, because if I am charged the team would be involved and they'd never think we're out of the game," Harmanpreet told broadcasters after the match.
Opting to bat first, India rode on Smriti Mandhana’s 31-ball 61 and Jemimah Rodrigues’ unbeaten 44 off 31 balls to post 164/5 on the board.
Commenting on India's batting performance, Harmanpreet said, "Shafali did well in patches, sometimes it's hard to go when you don't get strike. She'll learn about staying in and find ways to overcome such situations. But Smriti was fantastic."
In reply, England fell agonizingly short of the target. They were in the driver’s seat at one stage as opener Danielle Wyatt (35) and skipper Natalie Sciver (41) played handy knocks. Later, wicketkeeper Amy Jones looked set to take the hosts over the line but a silly run out opened the gates for India.
Amy Jones got run out in the 17th over on 31 as England lost the plot and were restricted to 160/6 in 20 overs. Apart from her, Alice Capsey and Natalie Sciver also got run out during the innings.
For India, Deepti Sharma starred with the ball, picking one wicket by giving away only 18 runs in her four overs. Sneh Rana, who affected two out of the three run outs, also returned with impressive bowling figures of 2 for 28 in her four overs while also defending 14 runs in the last over successfully.
With her part-time off-spin, Shafali conceded 15 runs in her second over, which was covered up by tight spells from Deepti and Rana.
"She's very confident, we need someone who asks to bowl. You need to mix up the pace, so we tried to use her to vary the speeds. One of her overs went well but the other was expensive," stated Harmanpreet.
The Indian captain also hoped that Jemimah would regain her fitness for the final after not fielding in the final over due to injury.
"Jemimah is a fighter, these things happen. She will be fine, she got a little strain on her hand but she should be able to turn up for the final."
(With IANS inputs)
