India is already in a safe position at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020. Their spot is secure at the semi-finals but Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur states that they will not take Sri Lanka lightly in their final group game.
Kaur’s side was the first to cross the knockout stages successfully, winning 3 out 3 matches against Australia, Bangladesh, and New Zealand in the first week of the tournament.
If they win over Sri Lanka on Saturday, India would top in Group A and would be beaming with confidence. Realizing this, Kaur, therefore, does not want to settle for anything less.
“I know we have qualified, but the next game is still crucial for us,” said Kaur. “We will be taking Sri Lanka very seriously. Share on X
Being ambitious she said, “They’ve been doing well. I know they haven’t won a game but they were almost there on both occasions.”
“We will be taking it very seriously before we start thinking about the semi-finals.
“We just have to try and stick to our plan, especially to get out the likes of Chamari Athapaththu early. That will be crucial.” Harmanpreet said as she talked about Chamari, one of the best batters in the opponent’s team.
Undoubtedly, Sri Lanka has had tough times as they were defeated in both the matches against New Zealand and Australia in their opening games and now they will be facing India in their third Grop A fixture.
Even though Sri Lanka has lost all matches against opponents but they gave a tough fight to each team they faced. They reduced the Australian score to 10 for 3 in their breathtaking match against Australia.
Sri Lanka’s Shashikala Siriwardena will retire from all formats of the game at the end of the tournament after 17 years. She is proud of her team’s fight so far but admitted that she would be disappointed to say her farewells without a tournament win.
“We want to take victories in our next two games,” she said. “We did well against Australia and New Zealand, but we couldn’t turn it into a win.
“Chamari Athapaththu is performing well which really is boosting the team. We’re happy with the way we’ve played but we’re still hungry for a win and we’ll be giving 100 percent to get it.
“We have to do what we have done well in previous matches against India but at the same time, we need to correct the mistakes we are repeating, especially in fielding.
“Our players are trying to continuously perform, that’s the main thing. We know that the potential is there but the performance and execution on the big stage are lacking.
“Playing close matches against good quality teams has only helped us to improve.” She said on a positive note.
This news was first published on ICC Website
Female Cricket is a digital news portal that aims to spread, share and celebrate the journey of our female cricketers around the world.