India secured a dominant victory over UAE in the Women's Asia Cup on Sunday, thanks in part to a crucial half-century from captain Harmanpreet Kaur and a late blitz from young wicketkeeper-batsman Richa Ghosh.
India's batting innings got off to a shaky start, slumping to 52-3 early on. However, Kaur steadied the ship with a well-paced 66 runs off 47 balls. "My focus was on rotating the strike," Kaur explained after the match. "When Jemi [Jemimah Rodrigues] and I were batting, we spoke about running hard and getting 7-8 runs per over, rather than going for risky shots."
Kaur then stitched together two vital partnerships: 54 runs with Rodrigues and a match-defining 75 runs with Ghosh, who blasted an unbeaten 64 runs off just 29 balls.
Ghosh's late flurry propelled India to their highest-ever T20 total of 201 for 5 wickets.
"Credit to Richa," Kaur acknowledged. "Because of her innings, we reached a strong total. Today, again, we lost early wickets, but we stayed positive and kept ourselves in the game."
Ghosh, who was named Player of the Match for her explosive knock, credited Kaur's guidance for her success. "Whenever I bat with Harry [Harmanpreet] di, she tells me how the ball is coming on and how to play the shots," Ghosh said. "Whenever I get the opportunity, I want to back myself."
UAE captain Esha Rohit Oza admitted her team had much to learn from the encounter. "It was a great learning experience," she said.
"We saw firsthand how to build an innings and how to finish games. This is something we need to work on. We put up a better score against a strong side, and we will take the learnings from this match into our next game."
India's win puts them in a strong position in the Asia Cup tournament, while UAE will look to bounce back and implement the lessons learned from this match.
