3 Errors India Must Correct to Beat Pakistan in Crucial Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 Encounter: The Indian Women’s National Cricket Team, captained by Harmanpreet Kaur suffered a humiliating defeat versus New Zealand in their opening Women’s T20 World Cup encounter on Friday evening. The 2020 runners-up lost by a big margin of 58 runs, which has made their route of advancing to the knockout-stage difficult.
The fielding was not up to the mark, the bowling was mediocre, and the batters showed little enthusiasm to chase down the score of 161 runs. Nothing went in the favour of Team India and now they find themselves in a difficult situation in a challenging group.
However, the Women in Blue’s hopes of qualifying for the semis are not crushed yet and they have to treat all of their remaining group stage encounters as must-win ones. They will square off against fierce-rivals Pakistan in their next fixture and we will take a look at three errors the Indians must correct to defeat Pakistan.
3) Captaincy-related mistakes must be reduced
Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur didn’t have a good match as a captain and with the bat as well versus New Zealand. Her bowling-change decisions were dubious and the White Ferns took full advantage of the captaincy errors.
Right-arm seamer Pooja Vastrakar (0-9) just bowled a single over and she wasn’t allowed to complete her full quota of four overs despite bowling well. Furthermore, off-spinner Deepti Sharma, who had an abysmal outing with the ball, was allowed to complete her full quota of four overs and it turned out to be a gift in disguise for the Sophie Devine-led team.
In four overs, the 27-year-old gave away 45 runs without picking up a single wicket. Moreover, the fielding-placements were not up to the mark and Kaur played a conservative game as the skipper, which let New Zealand win the match handily. As the leader of the team, she must be alert against Pakistan otherwise India may get eliminated from the competition after just two matches.
2) Work on improvising the level of fielding
Team India’s fielding level versus New Zealand was abysmal which created a lot of disappointment among the supporters. A lot of easy-catching opportunities were dropped, and it cost the Women in Blue heavily against the Sophie Devine-led New Zealand.
Versus Pakistan, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led team cannot afford to make the same mistakes. Their Asian counterparts played in a superb manner versus Sri Lanka, and are full of confidence, therefore, the Women in Blue need to be smart on the field to avoid giving away precious runs.
1) Senior batters should take responsibility in crucial matches.
Experienced senior batters Shafali Verma (12 runs in 13 balls), captain Harmanpreet Kaur (15 runs in 14 balls), and Shafali Verma (2 runs in 4 balls) failed to score big runs with the bat and this is where the Indian Cricket Team lost their way in the chase.
We’ve seen Indian players struggle in big games before, and here was a chance to prove everybody incorrect. A target of 161 runs was always going to be difficult to chase down against a strong opposition bowling attack, but the Indian batsmen surrendered during the power play, allowing New Zealand to humiliate them. The batting needs to be refreshed before facing Pakistan, and the senior batters must accept responsibility for delivering results.
Also Read: Women’s T20 World Cup 2024: When, Where & How To Watch the India vs Pakistan match?
For more information, visit the official websites of Indian Cricket and Pakistan Cricket.