Mithali Remains Key Player for Us, Important to Use Her Smartly: Harmanpreet Kaur

Cricketnext Staff | Updated: November 12, 2018, 12:49 AM IST

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur praised stalwart Mithali Raj - who opened the innings and played a match winning knock of 56 off 47 balls - calling her a key component of the team going forward.

"Mithali is a key player and we have to use her in a smart way. Pakistan are a good bowling side, she's (Mithali) very good against spin and that's why we played her up there, it was a decision by the coach and me," said Harmanpreet, in the post-match presentation.

Though India won the game quite easily in the end, they were let down by some poor fielding with three catches being dropped. Harmanpreet said that it is something the team has to work on.

"Disappointed with the way we fielded, in short format, it's very important how we bowl or bat in the first six overs. The bowlers did well but we still have to improve. There is still a long way to go but I feel we are on the right track," she added.

Meanwhile, Mithali Raj added that she was happy to perform whatever role the team required of her.

"I have always batted in the middle. I enjoy batting anywhere. Chasing puts a little pressure, but no matter what the challenge is, I always enjoy. I see there is no doubt that we will get to the semis, but as we go forward, we'll be playing strong teams, so we will have to bring our A game in every match," she added.

Pakistan were handed a 10-run penalty for running on the pitch, which captain Javeria Khan described as 'unprofessional' on her team's part.

"I had a chat with the umpires, they told me that our players were warned thrice and then the runs were docked. It was unprofessional on our part, after being warned, we still trodded (sic) on the danger area, it's something we need to work on, it hasn't happened for the first time, it happened previously during the Sri Lanka series as well," said Khan.

She heaped praise on Bismah Maroof and Nida Dar for their innings but said the bowling was a bit disappointing.

"I'm glad that we managed to get a total on the board and we had a partnership, both (Maroof and Nida Dar) played really well. These two have proven to the girls and everyone tried their best to do well for the team. Hopefully, we will learn from this going ahead and others stand up and perform. Our bowling effort was a bit disappointing despite being 10 runs short. It could have been a bit better, we took them until the 19th over, but we could have planned it better, if we had executed our plans, we might still have beaten them," she added.