Birmingham on Aug.6 : India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur admitted that she will be watching closely the second semifinal of 2022 Commonwealth Games between Australia and New Zealand to set their plans for the gold-medal match that will be held on Sunday.On the Saturday of the tournament, India shrugged off their troubles of losing to teams that were more formidable and coming up short by the tiniest of margins in the moments that was crucial to beat England by four runs in the first semi-final.They will to play for the gold medal in 2022 Commonwealth Games.
India will now play either Australia or New Zealand from the second semi-final, which will be played later on Saturday, to play the gold-medal match in the final on Sunday.England will now participate in the bronze-medal match scheduled for the same day.
“I certainly will take the lessons learned and formulate our plans for the next match.I needed to be fired up because if I was charged, the team will be involved and they wouldn’t think we’ve been kicked out of the match,” said Harmanpreet to broadcasters after the game.
When asked about India’s batting performance in which they posted an impressive 164-5 in 20 overs, Harmanpreet remarked, “Shafali did very well in patches, but sometimes it’s difficult to get going when you don’t have strike.She’ll learn to stay in and finding ways to get through these circumstances.But Smriti was a delight.”
With her off-spin part-time, Shafali gave 15 runs in her second over, but this was covered by a couple of fast spells from spinners Deepti Sharma and Sneh Rana.”She’s extremely confident, and it’s important to have someone who is willing to bowl.It is important to vary the speed so we tried using her to change the speed.
One of her runs was successful however the other one was costly,” stated Harmanpreet.
Harmanpreet hoped batter Jemimah Rodrigues would fully recover in time to play in the final, after not playing in the final over due to an injury.”Jemimah is an athlete and things happen.She is healthy, she got a little strain on her hand , but she is expected to make it to the fight.”
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