Melbourne: The Indian women’s cricket team’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur insisted Friday that her side will take its final group game of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup against Sri Lanka seriously before shifting focus on to the semifinals.
India became the first side to sail through to the knockout stages after securing wins against hosts and defending champions Australia, as well as Bangladesh and New Zealand, in the first week of the tournament.
“I know we have qualified, but the next game is still crucial for us. We will be taking Sri Lanka very seriously. We cannot afford to be complacent,” Harmanpreet told reporters here.
“They (Sri Lanka) have been doing well. I know they haven’t won a game but they were almost there on both occasions. We will be taking them seriously before we start thinking about the semifinals,” added the Indian skipper.
Victory over Sri Lanka would see India top Group A and head into the semifinals high on confidence. “We try to take every wicket in all of our games. Every wicket is important at this level. We just have to try and stick to our plan, especially to get out the likes of Chamari Athapaththu early. That will be crucial.” Harmanpreet informed.
Sri Lanka have arguably had the toughest start to the tournament having lost to New Zealand and Australia in their opening two games, and now in-form India awaits then in their third Group A fixture.
Sri Lanka veteran Shashikala Siriwardena – who will retire from all formats of the game at the end of the tournament after 17 years – is proud of her team’s fight so far, but admitted that it would be a big disappointment if they fail to register a win in her farewell tournament.
“We want to take victories in our next two games. We did well against Australia and New Zealand, but we couldn’t turn it into a win,” Siriwardena said.
“We have to do what we have done well in previous matches against India but at the same time we need to correct the mistakes we are repeating, especially in fielding,” added the Sri Lankan veteran.
PTI