India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur attempted to defend her team’s performance despite putting on a below-par show in the 2nd T20 against England in Mumbai. Kaur and co were bundled out for just 80 runs as England’s spinners wreaked havoc in the IND W vs ENG W 2nd T20I. Heather Knight’s girls managed to chase down the meagre target in just 11.4 overs, handing India their second consecutive T20 defeat.
Kaur ‘proud of’ IND W despite embarrassing loss
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Kaur lauded the team for fighting till the last run and said that she was proud of the side. Admitting that they were short of 30-40 runs, the Indian skipper said that some of them couldn’t read the ball well besides England’s stupendous bowling. Kaur revealed that the team was playing with a ‘positive’ approach.
“Another 30-40 runs could have made a huge diifference. Proud of my team, we fought till the last run which is good to see. We always want to play with a positive approach, but unfortunately some of us didn’t read the ball well and they also bowled really well and didn’t allow us to score freely. After losing early wickets, we were thinking 120, but couldn’t do it. But still, our bowlers were ready to take up the challenge and bowled the way we wanted”, Harmanpreet Kaur said.
IND W vs ENG W 2nd T20I
England skipper Heather Knight won the toss and opted to have a bowl first. IND W had a shaky start as the star from the last match Shafali Verma was scalped for a second-ball duck. Smriti Mandhana had another poor outing as she could only score 10 runs. While Jemimah Rodrigues (30 runs) was the highest run-getter for IND W, none of the other Indian batters managed to reach the double figure mark. Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was scalped for just nine runs with two fours to her name.
Chasing a modest total of 81 runs, England suffered certain blows as pacer Renuka Thakur was impressive yet again. The pacer was excellent with the new ball as she removed both openers including Danielle Wyatt (0 runs) and Sophia Dunkley (9 runs). Alice Capsey (25 runs) came to the crease and played some shots before she was scalped by Saika Ishaque. Just like Capsey, Brunt also looked positive with the bat but was removed by Pooja Vastrakar for 16 runs. Deepti Sharma managed to take two wickets in two deliveries. However, it did not hurt England much.
Editors pick
