Harmanpreet Kaur reflects on India's nerve-wracking victory over Australia
It was a splendid effort by the Indian Women's team to secure a victory by four runs, in a fixture which ultimately went down to the super over against Australia.
Batting first, Australia got a stable start with Alyssa Healy's knock of 25 off 15 balls. Then, the duo of Beth Mooney and Tahlia McGrath started off where they left off in the last fixture. They put on a show to pave way for Australia to post 187. Mooney hit 82* off 54, while McGrath finished on 70* off 51.
In reply, Shafali Verma (34 off 23) was impressive in getting the Women in Blue to a positive start. Although Jemimah Rodrigues failed again, Harmanpreet Kaur (21) proved to be a good support to Smriti Mandhana, who looked at her best.
With her perfectly placed shots, Mandhana hit 79 off 49. Afterwards, Richa Ghosh was terrific to smoke 26* off 13. In the last over, Devika Vaidya kept her calm to level the scores.
In the super over, Richa hit a six off the first ball, while Mandhana continued her strong showing to help India score 20 runs in the super over. In reply, Australia could hit and lost by four runs.
At the post-match presentation, Kaur reckoned that they wanted to bat freely and without pressure in this game. Further, she praised Richa's ball-striking abilities, which certainly helped the Indian team to ace the crucial game.
"We scored 170 odd runs in the last game and thought that if someone could put some more runs in the game we could have got 200. We wanted to bat freely and without pressure today."
"I am someone who always backed her [Richa Ghosh]. In her initial days, she was struggling and now she is powering the ball really well and improving. I feel our bowling was better than the previous game. "
Both teams will meet in the third T20I on Wednesday (December 14) at Brabourne Stadium.
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