Team India have reached the T20 World Cup semifinals for the third successive time. However, Harmanpreet Kaur said the India women’s team have been guilty of playing too many dots and need to address the issue heading into the semifinals.
The women in Blue won three out of four games in the group stage, with the solitary loss coming against England. They played 51 dot balls in their 11-run defeat while chasing 152. India defeated Ireland in the final group match by five runs on DLS method, but they played 41 dots in their innings. They managed to post 155 thanks to Smriti Mandhana’s career-best 87 off 56.
Kaur revealed that the team has been discussing this issue of high dot-ball percentage. She added that the tournament in South Africa has had tough pitches with even 150 being a competitive score.
“Against England, we played too many dot balls. Things like that we have already been discussing in team meetings. But sometimes, when the other team is bowling too well, at the end of the day, these wickets are something when you score 150, that’s a par score for you,”
she said.
“World Cup games are always something where both the teams are always under pressure. I think these matches, if 150 is on the board, you always [have] the upper hand. Dot balls are something which [are] already worrying us. In the next game, we would love to see some improvement in that area also.”
India are likely to face defending champions Australia in the semifinal unless the table-toppers England lose to Pakistan in their final group fixture by a heavy margin. The Aussies are strong favourites to win the tournament, and if India are to beat them, they can not afford any mistakes.
