India vs England: Harmanpreet Kaur says ‘outstanding’ bowling and fielding led to 8-run win in 2nd T20I – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Hove: India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur hailed her team’s outstanding fielding effort after the series-levelling win against England in the second women’s T20 International in Hove on Sunday.

Defending a modest 148, India were in a spot of bother but the spinners bowled extremely well and were supported by fielders to restrict the hosts to 140 for eight.

“I will give credit to our bowlers, their field placement was important, and the fielding was outstanding,” a pleased Haramanpreet said at the post match presentation ceremony.

“We always want to win, this bubble thing is not that easy to adapt. We should give credit to our support staff, keeping us motivated.”

File image of Harmanpreet Kaur. AP

Harmanpreet said each and every member of the side is aware of the role they have to play and that makes her job easy.

“Great effort by our whole team, everybody knows what to do and I’m really happy with the way we played. We got a very good start, but for two-three overs we didn’t get runs. I had to go because we needed 150 on the board,” she said.

England captain Heather Knight the result was not what she would have liked to see after dominating the contest.

“We were very good for large proportion of the game, the way we pulled it back with the ball was outstanding, showed character. Proud of the bowlers. But at 106-2 we shouldn’t be losing,” she said

“As a batting group we’ve got to be better, it was a good wicket, need to take our singles and not put pressure on lower order. Strong line-up, but not been ruthless. Have to be better, shouldn’t be losing those games.”

Knight said they will do everything they can to claim the series. The series decider will be played on Wednesday in Chelmsford.

“We can’t lose the series but we’re desperate to win it. Credit to India, taken it to the last game, but we’ll be looking to win the series in Chelmsford,” she said.

Deepti Sharma, who scored a crucial 24-run unbeaten knock and also took a wicket, was adjudged the Player-of-the-Match.

“When me and Harmanpreet were batting, we were talking about taking it deep. As a bowling unit, the plan was to bowl dot balls, and bowl in partnerships, cut down boundaries,” she said.