Following the loss against New Zealand Women in their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup opener, India Women batter Jemimah Rodrigues said that the team needs to move forward and focus on their upcoming fixtures in the marquee event.
The 58-run loss to the third-highest-ranked team in Group A leaves India in a tricky early position in the standings, with defending champions Australia the favourites to top a group that is fascinatingly poised after two results that defied the form book.
“Going forward I think we need to have the right approach because the tournament’s not over. We need to take some positives from this game and a lot of learnings from this game,” Rodrigues said in India’s post-match press conference as quoted by the ICC.
India were on the back foot early in the game as New Zealand’s openers got off to a fast start, but Rodrigues said the pace of the Kiwis‘ scoring did not come as a surprise.
“We knew that any team would come hard at us, and I think they came out with a lot of intent. We did create opportunities, but unfortunately, we didn’t make the most of it,” the right-hand batter added.
India’s number four instead opted to look at her own part in a batting display that fell way short of the team’s expectations.
Rodrigues chipped a simple catch to mid-on to depart for 13, and the 24-year-old was annoyed at herself for not playing more of a rebuilding role after the team had earlier slipped to 42/3.
“I know with my game I’m ready to bat anywhere the team wants me. Today, because I was batting well, I had some form in the warm-up games, it was my responsibility to make sure we built a partnership after losing wickets,” the Indian cricketer said.
“Today would be the game we’d like to forget. This is a World Cup and we need to keep moving on and picking ourselves up – we can’t say stuck on this game. We need to pick ourselves up and show the character of this team,” Rodrigues added.
Next up for India, it’s a fixture against Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday – a match that now takes on even greater significance, with the 2020 finalists needing a victory to stabilise the campaign.
But Pakistan will not be an easy test on the evidence of their opening-day performance, which saw them upset Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka.
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(With inputs from ANI)
