India captain Harmanpreet Kaur acknowledged that giving other batters batting opportunities in the Women’s Asia Cup match backfired after India lost by 13 runs to Pakistan. India had been experimenting with their batting order after their 41-run victory over Sri Lanka in the tournament’s opening match, which they won against Malaysia and the UAE. 

Dayalan Hemalatha, Pooja Vastrakar, and Deepti Sharma batted first in the match against Pakistan on Friday. Harmanpreet batted at number seven instead of her usual number four spot.However, the experiment did not produce the desired outcomes, and despite Richa Ghosh’s last-minute cameo of 26 runs off just 13 balls, India were bowled out for 124 in 19.4 overs, 13 runs short of their target.

“In the middle, we were trying to give the chance to other batters, which cost us today. Because you have to do that as the tournament goes on, but it backfired. It was a chaseable target. In the middle overs, we were not able to take singles and rotate strike, we played too many dot balls,” said Harmanpreet in the post-match presentation ceremony.

India’s 13-run defeat was only their third in T20Is against Pakistan and their first against their archrivals in the Women’s Asia Cup’s history.

“For me it is important that whoever is new in the side, they should good number of games heading into the World Cup, because whenever you change the side the players coming in should be ready. It was a great opportunity for others,”

added Harmanpreet.

After losing to Bangladesh in the 2018 Women’s Asia Cup final, the hosts and defending champions, India now have less than 24 hours to regroup and turn the tide.

“We are aware of that and never take any team lightly. It is a part of the game. Yesterday, Thailand played a good game. Today, they (Pakistan) played good cricket, and they came up trumps and deserved to win it. Going forward, we need to work on those areas and be strong,”

asserted Harmanpreet.

Bismah Maroof, captain of Pakistan, was overjoyed with her team’s flawless execution of their plans against India and praised senior all-rounder Nida Dar for her all-around performance with the bat and ball.

Pakistan reached 137/6 in 20 overs thanks to Nida’s attacking 56 not out off 37 balls.In her four off-spin overs, she had figures of 2/23 with the bat, including Harmanpreet’s wicket.

“Very important game for us after yesterday. We executed the things very well. How Nida batted beautifully. We just wanted to take calculated risks. Nida played a crucial innings for us and helped us get a good total. In the middle we were looking for gaps, and we know Nida can hit so we look to hit the strength areas. We didn’t assess the conditions well (yesterday). We read the conditions well today. We executed the plans very well today.”

she said

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Nida, adjudged as Player of the match for her all-round exploits, revealed that she was looking for her hitting zones with the bat to put India under pressure.

 “It was a slow start but I went there and talked to Bismah and she said look we have to make a partnership here. It was a good wicket for the batters but it was my role to play an innings like that. It was like I wanted to find my hitting areas. We need to work on our last three to four overs and need to finish well.”

she said.

As many as 1.2 million tickets have been sold for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games commencing on July 28, the coordinators have said, adding that the Women’s cricket match among India and Pakistan has “really caught the interest” of the local public.

Women’s cricket is making its debut at the Commonwealth Games, and India and Pakistan will be facing off at Edgbaston on July 31. The city is home to a significant number of Indian and Pakistani-origin people.

Addressing PTI, Birmingham Games CEO Ian Reid said the semi-final rounds and final tickets have previously been taken while he expects a housefull crowd even for the India-Pakistan fixture.

“I am a big cricket fan myself. India is in the same group as Pakistan so that has really caught the interest here in Birmingham. It is an iconic venue, your men’s team recently played here over the last few weeks. So it would certainly be one of the highlights of the Games,”

Reid said

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More than 5000 athletes will take part in the Games which will be the biggest sporting event in the UK since the London Olympics in 2012.

“The semifinals and final tickets have already been sold out, probably with the expectation that India and England will be there. India and Pakistan will be close to capacity. We will see an uptick in ticket sales much closer to the event. So I expect that India-Pakistan game to be sold out soon.”

He added

Reid further added that 1.2 million tickets have been sold for the event. They anticipate that that number should go up as they draw nearer to the Games. So by a wide margin the greatest game in the UK since London 2012. They will have around 45,000 workers and paid staff dealing with the occasion. It is a huge event for the region and the city.