Mumbai: England pacer Kate Cross said she was left incredibly impressed with left-arm spinner Saika Ishaque’s emergence in the ongoing Women’s Premier League (WPL), terming her as the real find of the tournament.
With the WPL giving a platform to uncapped talented Indian players, Saika has made the most of the opportunity, picking nine wickets to be the leading wicket-taker of the competition.
Thursday, she took out Shafali Verma, Meg Lanning and Jemimah Rodrigues in a game-changing spell to set the base for an eight-wicket victory for Mumbai Indians.
“She’s jumped significantly ahead of Hayley Matthews, her teammate. She bowls stump-to-stump, and she changes the angles at which she bowls. She bowled with the cap and I don’t think she wants to take it off.”
“She’s been a real find for this tournament and it’s great for her (captain Harmanpreet Kaur) to have players like that to throw the ball to her because she can find the breakthrough and T20 cricket is all about taking wickets,” Kate was quoted as saying by Sports18 and JioCinema.
Kate also felt that Mumbai, the only undefeated side in the competition, are a firm contender for the title now. “Mumbai have been absolutely formidable. They look complete in every single department. They dropped a few catches early and that’s the only thing you can say about tonight that they didn’t get perfect. They’ve been a brilliant team to watch. Who’ll catch them? I am not too sure.”
She also discussed the early success of Harmanpreet as a captain, which also played a huge role in Mumbai getting a comprehensive win over Delhi. “To win three games by the margins they’ve had, I can’t imagine how smug Harmanpreet must be feeling right now because they’ve been fantastic.”
“The tone was set with how they bowled, how Wong bowled, and how Ishaque bowled. They just had this plan and they executed it, that’s all you can ask for as a captain. They managed to pick up the wickets, which was the bonus on top of executing the plan.”
IANS