The Indian women’s cricket team has been really great for their series of T20I matches, taking the fourth game against Sri Lanka on Sunday by 30 runs. This win counted for the 4-0 lead in the five-match series for India and made it possible to get the last T20I on Tuesday as the series already swept.
Despite the match being a convincing win, captain Harmanpreet Kaur admitted that she had to motivate her bowlers to increase their tempo at the end of Sri Lanka’s batting as there was a chance of a slow over-rate penalty. The umpires already gave the warning to the team, so she was acting as a director for her players during the last overs of the inning.
Talking about her vigorous display during the game, Harmanpreet said it was about the time limit and the correct fielding positions both. She also said that she was working on giving the team better discipline by learning from her and the team’s past mistakes.
The Indian team victory was based on the opening partnership of record-breaking by Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma. Mandhana made an attractive 80 runs and Shafali hit 79 runs and thus laid down a strong base for the local team. Harmanpreet recognized the pair’s contribution and said that the team total was mostly determined by their explosive opening before she and Richa Ghosh added the finishing touches.
The bowler of the Indian team, Vaishnavi Sharma, was the one who stole the show with an excellent performance of 2 wickets for 24 runs, thereby, supporting the Indian bowlers’ efforts to restrict the score of the Sri Lankans and eventually, winning the match for India.
With the series already in bag, Harmanpreet said that India might try different combinations in the last match. She stated that initially the team wanted to push Harleen Deol up the order, but after the very strong opening partnership, the plan was changed and Richa Ghosh was brought in earlier instead.
The Indian team is now ready to play the fifth and final T20I match against Sri Lanka on Tuesday, aiming for a 5-0 clean sweep.