India captain Harmanpreet Kaur is quite impressed with the fielding of her team as they thrashed England for a record-breaking win in their one-off Test played at the DY Patil Stadium.
It was a complete domination from Day 1 with batters first putting up a strong total before the bowlers made sure England found no way back into the contest they went on to win by 347 runs well inside three days.
Also Read: Johnson Doubles Down on David Warner Criticism Despite Perth Century
It was a challenging pitch for the batters with spinners dominating but Indian batters fared vastly better than their counterparts with scores of 428 (first innings) and 186/6 declared (2nd innings).
In a stark contrast, England managed 136 (first innings) and 131 (2nd innings).
For Harmanpreet though, the biggest positive from the contest was the fielding.
“Everything went according to the plan. We got the score that we wanted and the bowlers did a good job, both medium pacers and spinners knew their plans and performed accordingly,” Harmanpreet said.
“The biggest positive was our fielding, especially in a long game when you have to field for 90 overs (in a day) it is very important to maintain the energy. We managed to set the tone with our fielding,” she added.
She also acknowledged the role of head coach Amul Muzumdar.
“Our coach helped us a lot, I had zero experience in leading the team in Test,” Harmanpreet told the media after the massive win. I was trusting his (Muzumdar’s) decisions be it sending Shubha (Satheesh) at one-down in the first innings or whatever ideas he gave in bowling, like the first 40 minutes were important today, the idea was to put them (England) in early and utilise the morning conditions,” Harmanpreet said.
“His experience really helped us and it also gave me time to decide what was the best for the team,” she added.
Harmanpreet was run out on 49 in the first innings and unbeaten on 44 when India declared their innings on overnight total of 186/6.
The 34-year-old said she’s not focused on individual milestones even though they can go a long way in helping the confidence level.
“For me, the priority is to get the team to a solid position when I come out to bat. I have not been one to fixate on personal milestones. That said, good individual scores go a long way in ensuring we gain confidence,” she said.
“At the same time, when we batted second, we were looking for a lead of 500, we get extra safety with regard to runs and then we tried harder. Unfortunately we lost early wickets in the second innings. We were still in a good place. So there was a thought to keep individual milestones on the side and look for what works best for the team. More than us batting, it was important to give the bowlers those 40 minutes in the morning to make best use of the conditions… So we backed that plan,” she added.
Comments
0 comment