India’s win over Pakistan in the Women’s T20 World Cup on Sunday is being looked at as a missed opportunity for Harmanpreet Kaur’s team to improve their net run rate (NRR) despite limiting the opposition to a mere 105 runs.
India suffered a 58-run defeat in their opening match of the tournament against New Zealand and needed a big win against Pakistan to climb up in Group A.However, despite the six-wicket victory, they stayed at number four with two points and an NRR of -1.217.
New Zealand lead the table, followed by Australia and Pakistan, with Sri Lanka at rock bottom. Top two teams from each of the two groups will qualify for the semifinals.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was the only Indian batter who could score at a strike-rate of above 100.00 in the run-chase at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. She made 29 off 24 balls before walking off retired hurt with a neck injury.
Opener Shafali Verma top-scored with 32 off 35 balls, while Jemimah Rodrigues contributed 23 off 28 balls.
India next take on Sri Lanka on Wednesday, followed by their concluding group match against the formidable Australia on October 13.
“India, it seems, will have to beat Australia to improve their net run-rate,” said former Pakistan batsman Simple Ali on his YouTube channel. “Overall it looks tough for them to finish in the top four (qualify for semifinals). That makes their match against Sri Lanka very important. They will have to win that game by a big margin to stay in contention; otherwise, I feel, they have a problem.”
India opener Smriti Mandhana, who could score only seven runs in Sunday’s win, admitted that the team had the NRR playing on their mind.
“We could have done with a better start with the bat,” said Mandhana. “But we will take this. We were thinking about it (NRR) but Shafali and I weren’t able to time it (the shots) well. So we didn’t want to get to a place where we were chasing the game, but NRR is surely in our heads. This game will give us some momentum and hopefully we can keep going in this tournament.”
