Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said on Saturday that the team management has given Shafali Verma the freedom to play her natural game. Verma, who has set the Women’s T20 World Cup on fire, has broken into the cricketing scene and has announced her entry with flair.
16-year-old Verma has the second-highest run-getter in the ongoing tournament. She has scored 161 runs so far in the tournament, hitting 18 fours and nine sixes in four matches at an astounding strike rate of 161.
On Saturday, Shafali hit a 34-ball 47 to steer India to a seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka after spinner Radha Yadav produced a career-best 4/23.
After the match, Kaur said, “Shafali is someone who loves to play big shots, and we don’t want to stop her. She should continue doing the same and she should continue enjoying her game.”
India entered the World Cup semifinals after winning all four games and accumulating eight points to finish at the top of Group A. Kaur stressed that it is important to continue the winning momentum.
“It’s really important to keep the momentum when you are winning games. You really work hard, so you can’t afford to lose that momentum. You can’t bowl same pace and lengths on these wickets, so you need to keep rotating the bowlers.”
Kaur, who is herself a powerful hitter, could not live up to her reputation in the first three matches of the World Cup after failing to reach double-digit scores. However, she gained her momentum against Sri Lanka by hitting two fours and a six. She said, “Today I tried to be positive and got a few boundaries. In the upcoming games I’ll try to give my best.”
Sri Lankan skipper Chamari Atapattu lamented the two dropped catches against Shafali Verma, which caused them the game.
“I think that score was not enough, we lost couple of chances, specially Shafali, it was hard to stop her,” she said.
“Yeah, I got a good start but unfortunately got out in the 10th, would have wanted to stay in there till the 16th or the 17th over. I hope we can beat Bangladesh in our last game.”
