DUBAI (Reuters) – India must quickly move on from Friday’s shock defeat against New Zealand to revive their fortunes in the women’s T20 World Cup, batter Jemimah Rodrigues said.
India’s campaign suffered an early jolt after the Harmanpreet Kaur-led squad were handed a 58-run hammering in their Group A opener in Dubai.
Chasing 161 for victory, India were bundled out for 102 in 19 overs with Kaur’s 15 the highest individual score in their innings.
“Today would be the game we would like to forget, because this is a World Cup,” Rodrigues, who made 13, told reporters late on Friday.
“We need to keep moving on and keep picking ourselves up. We can’t stay stuck at this game.
“We need to pick ourselves up, and I think that will show the character of this team.”
Play was briefly held up after umpires rejected India’s run-out appeal against New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr.
Kerr took a single off the last ball of Deepti Sharma’s over before slowing down, and the bowler went to the umpire to collect her cap.
The New Zealand batters then tried to take a second run, but India wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh collected a throw and broke the stumps with Kerr short of ground.
India were celebrating a run-out, but the umpires declared the ball had been dead once single was taken and any subsequent event did not count.
“New Zealand were pretty sure that it was a double run and Amelia went for it, which showed that the over was not called out yet. And we all thought that we got that run-out,” Rodrigues said.
“We respect the decision of the umpire and we were OK with that. But yeah, it’s a bit harsh when Amelia herself walked out because she knew she was out.”
In Group A, New Zealand and Pakistan have begun their campaign with victories, while Australia begin their title defence against Sri Lanka on Saturday.
The top two teams from the group make the semi-finals.
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by William Mallard)
