Despite losing the tri-series final by five wickets to South Africa, India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur believed that his team had some good performances.
India had elected to bat first on a slow pitch at Buffalo Park but managed to put in just 109/4 in their 20 overs. Harleen Deol top-scored with 46 but took 56 balls to make those runs while Harmanpreet made 21 off 22 balls.
Moreover, Harmanpreet needed the attention of the physio and had to go off the field for some time too.
“Body is fine. It will get better with rest. We have got some good performances. Unfortunately, we were not able to bat the way we wanted and the bowlers did well,” she said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Among the positives for India, off-spin all-rounder Deepti Sharma showed she was in stellar form, taking the Player of the Series award for making 59 runs with the bat and taking five wickets with the ball in the tri-series.
“Throughout the tournament, I bowled according to the situation and as a bowling unit, we did well. Wickets were turning and helped spinners. We did well,” she said.
For South Africa, the tri-series victory was a boost before the start of the much-anticipated Women’s T20 World Cup to be hosted by them from February 10-26. All-rounder Chloe Tryon, who led the victory road for South Africa with a counter-attacking 57 not out, was pleased with her performance.
“I think the bowlers did well up front and it’s good to make some runs on a tricky wicket like that. We did well as a team. Going into the T20 World Cup we are confident. Playing at home is exciting.”
Captain Sune Luus praised Chloe’s efforts in giving South Africa the tri-series victory coming after off-field talk around excluding Dane van Niekerk from the T20 World Cup squad on fitness grounds.
“Super proud of the girls. We needed just that momentum heading into the T20 World Cup. It was out and out a spinning wicket. All the bowlers did extremely well and had special innings to top it off from Chloe. We pride ourselves on her field and we will be working on improving it in every game.”
-IANS
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