Mithali Raj fifty steers India to victory
Her 16th T20I half-century wrapped up India's victory over Pakistan with six balls and seven wickets to spare
Her 16th T20I half-century wrapped up India's victory over Pakistan with six balls and seven wickets to spare
That's all we have, thanks for your company, see ya!
"We bowled well at the start. Disappointed with the way we fielder," India captain Harmanpreet Kaur says. "In short format, it's very important how we bowl or bat in the first six overs. The bowlers did well there. Mithali is a key player and we have to use her in a smart way. Pakistan are a good bowling side, she's very good against spin and that's why we played her up there, it was a decision by the coach and me. We just told her to spend time on the wicket [about Mandhana] and very happy she did. Long way to go. We have two games left. We are on the right track"
"We've been wokring really hard, the coach has been working hard to empower the players, giving us confidence and we're really glad they're here with us," Pakistan captain Javeria Khan says. "We were told to play fearless cricket and despite losing wickets, we could still go for our shots and thats how Nida and Bismah played. We came here to play fearless cricket and I"m sure both those girls will inspire the rest of the team to build more partnerships and hopefully get wins. [Penalties] I had a chat. They told me that after warning the players three times, they gave the penalties. It's unprofessionalism on our part because we were warned. it's not happened the first time. It's happened in the Sri Lanka series as well. The way our bowlers bowled, maybe they could have been better. After being penalised by 10 runs, we made them reach the 19th over and if we could have executed our plans better, we could have contained them better. Really happy with the girls and the coaches have said it's not the result that matters its the way we play that's how we inspire young girls and that's how we'd get them to come forward and play cricket and keep us strong"
Mithali Raj is the Player of the Match: [Who wrote the book that you were reading in the World Cup last year?] I don't know. By default, all my years I've been in the middle. So I enjoy being there and I would like to continue batting there. I enjoy opening. I enjoy batting No. 3. At the end of the day, I just enjoy batting. Chasing puts a little pressure, to keep up the run-rate, but that's is what I enjoy. [You're not captain anymore] I just know that I have a lot of time to read in the room. There's no doubt that we will get to play the semi-final. But as we go forward, we'll be playing the best teams and we have to get our A games to match
2.05 pm India dropped four catches. Most of them quite easy. But they needn't worry about that problem now having beaten Pakistan by seven wickets and that's largely because of their batting. Mithali Raj cruised to a half-century. Smriti Mandhana was beautiful to watch for as long as she was out there. And don't forget, they got 10 bonus runs before a ball was even bowled, a penalty to Pakistan for their batsmen running down the danger area of the pitch
At 4'11", the India legspinner can be hard to spot in team huddles, but she's increasingly hard to ignore, having taken more T20I wickets this year than anyone else, male or female
Her 16th T20I half-century wrapped up India's victory over Pakistan with six balls and seven wickets to spare