ICC T20 World Cup | Don’t Want to Stop Shafali, She should Continue Momentum: Harmanpreet

For the fourth straight game, Shafali Verma gave India a quick start, smashing 47 off 34 balls as India chased down 114 in just 14.4 overs.

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur lauded Shafali’s dynamic batting, and made it clear India had no plans of asking her to slow down.

“Shafali is someone who loves to play big shots. We don’t want to stop her. If she’s enjoying, she should continue the momentum. She is always enjoying, whether she is hitting or someone else is hitting boundaries,” Kaur said at the post-match presentation.



Kaur herself is not having a great tournament, but found a little bit of form scoring 15 off 14 with two fours and a six after promoting herself to No. 3. Kaur was happy with the small step and called on India to carry the momentum into the knockouts.

“Today I was looking quite positive and got a few boundaries, will give my best in the upcoming games,” she said. “Very important that when you’re winning, you have to continue the momentum. The bowlers understood the wicket very well. On these pitches, you cannot bowl the same pace every time.”

Chamari Athapaththu, Sri Lanka’s captain, rued their poor batting performance and dropped chances.

“I think the score was not enough for us. We lost a couple of chances, especially Shafali’s. We all know how dangerous a player she is. We dropped her chance and we couldn’t stop her,” she said. “I started well but I got out, I have to stay there and play 16-17 overs. Unfortunately I got out. If I stay there, we can score 150+. We’ll try to play positive cricket and play to our potential against Bangladesh.”

Radha Yadav, Player of the Match for her four-wicket haul, said: “I was just thinking to bowl stump to stump and keep it simple. As a bowling unit we did really well and I hope we keep this momentum going.”