Mithali Raj expressed relief at having emerged out of a rough patch to lead India to victory over New Zealand in the fourth women’s One-Day International here on Monday.
The captain made 81 as India won by eight wickets to level the five-match series. “I played the last two-three games under a lot of pressure,” she said afterwards.
“I do realise the importance of my wicket to the side, because the girls feel confident when I’m in the middle. But I felt I was putting unnecessary pressure on myself. Today, I wanted to take a positive approach. I asked the team to play confident cricket irrespective of the result.”
The partnership between her and Smriti Mandhana had been vital, Mithali felt. “We wanted to take it as close to the end as possible. If one of us had been dismissed earlier, the new batter would have found it difficult to score at four an over.
“Also, the openers did not consume too many balls today. They rotated the strike from the moment they went in. They set the momentum.”
Mithali was unhappy, however, with India’s display on the field. “We gave away a lot of extra runs. We could have saved at least four or five boundaries. Had we curtailed those runs, we would have finished much earlier,” she said.
New Zealand’s Sophie Devine, meanwhile, regretted the loss of wickets in a heap during her side’s innings. “That has been one of our problems. We had spoken about that not happening. We could have gone on to a much bigger score,” she said.
