India entered the semi-finals of the Women’s T20 World Cup after Shafali Verma’s 34-ball 46, followed by a superlative performance from the bowlers, helped the team notch up a narrow four-run win over New Zealand on Thursday.
Invited to bat, India posted a below-par 133 for eight in the Group A match with Shafali top-scoring and Taniya Bhatia chipping in with a 25-ball 23.
They, however, produced a disciplined performance with the ball to restrict New Zealand to 129 for six and register their third successive win in the tournament and seal a last-four spot. With this win, India topped Group A, having beaten Australia and Bangladesh in their last two outings.
“It is a great feeling when your team is performing like that,” India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said after the match.
“We did the same mistakes… we got a good start in the first 10 overs but we didn’t carry the momentum. We did bowl well in patches but we were not up to the mark. We have to focus on those areas,” she added.
“We can’t make silly mistakes with harder games coming up. Shafali is giving us good starts, her initial runs are crucial for us,” Kaur said.
Young Shafali was adjudged the Player of the Match and the 16-year-old was elated with her performance.
“Feeling good, very happy with the performance, want to continue doing this. I waited for the loose balls and converted those,” said Shafali.
Bhatia said that the Indian team has got better at reading and handling different situations.
“In the last 12 to 14 months, we have improved a lot as a unit. We’re in a really positive position. We’ve been playing well ever since the tri-series (in Australia). I think we’ve got a lot better as a team in working out how to handle and read situations well,” Bhatia said at the post-match media conference.
“The results are in our favour, but we need to keep up the momentum. If we do that, we will do well and hopefully we can win the final,” Bhatia added.
Bhatia is optimistic that the India batters will definitely come good in the remaining matches of the tournament.
“We’re playing well, it’s just one or two odd games where our batters failed to perform. Shafali is giving us a good start and the rest of us batters will take up responsibility,” she said.
Needing 44 off 21 balls, New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr (34) blasted four boundaries to accumulate 18 runs in the penultimate over bowled by Poonam Yadav to bring the equation down to 16 off six balls.
In the final over, Heyley Jensen (11) and Kerr cracked a four each but Shikha held her nerves in the end to ensure India’s win.
Earlier, Shafali provided the fireworks as India scored 49 for one in the powerplay overs. But they lost six wickets for 43 runs to squander the good start.
India will play Sri Lanka in their last Group A game on Saturday.