Pooja Vastrakar: Hard Lengths Key for Asia Cup in Sri Lanka

Pooja Vastrakar, an Indian bowler, said on Tuesday that her success in the T20I series against South Africa was due to her careful planning and execution of her strategies. She said that this will benefit her when India plays in the women’s Asia Cup T20, which begins in Sri Lanka next week.

Player of the series and player of the match went to Vastrakar, who helped India beat South Africa for 84 in the third and final T20 International by taking four wickets for 13 runs in 3.1 overs.

“It was an opportunity for me and whatever I practiced in the nets – bowling wicket-to-wicket – I executed. Bowling hard lengths help me,” the 24-year-old said during the post-match presentation.

“As an opportunity and a responsibility, the team felt I should be given the new ball. And I wanted to pick up early wickets and give team a good start,” said Vastrakar who ended as highest wicket taker in the T20I series with eight scalps from three matches.

“Such lengths will be effective in Sri Lanka. Want to do similarly well in Asia Cup. Tonight we tried to bowl to our strengths and give our best. All bowlers did well.”

In the ODI series in Bengaluru, Vastrakar had also claimed four wickets against the same opponents.

Sri Lanka will host the Women’s Asia Cup for its ninth edition from July 19–28.

India put on an incredible all-around display as they dismissed SA for 84 and then reached the necessary number of runs in 10.5 overs, scoring 88 runs without conceding a wicket thanks to a 40-ball 54 from Smriti Mandhana.

After South Africa won the first T20 International by 12 runs and the second game could not be played because rain washed away the whole second innings, India leveled the series 1-1 with the 10-wicket victory.

“We spoke about the things we need to improve and I’m proud of the way we played today. Going forward, we might have situations similar to this where we have to go hard and express ourselves,” Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said.

“We were positive today and played as a team. Whoever got the opportunity, they did really well. Self belief was there and now with Asia Cup round the corner, we want to go there and do really well.”

Speaking about head coach Amol Mazumdar, Kaur said: “He is really cool and keeps things really simple, the staff is very positive and this is the best staff I have ever worked with. As a team we want to keep doing the right things and keep winning.”

South African skipper Laura Wolvaardt rued the disappointing end to the tour.

“Not the way we want to end the series, disappointing loss. Overall, a lot of learnings. The first two games, we had a lot of positives. We should have taken a little bit more time upfront today,” she said.

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