By Admin 
Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur praised Smriti Mandhana (109 runs) and Pratika Raval (122 runs) after qualifying for the semi-finals of the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup here on Thursday, saying the credit for the victory goes to the entire team.
After the century innings of Mandhana and Raval, with the help of tight bowling, India defeated New Zealand by 53 runs by Duckworth-Lewis method in a rain-affected match and became the fourth team to reach the semi-finals. Jemimah Rodrigues also played an unbeaten inning of 76 runs.
Harmanpreet said after the match, “It was not an easy victory.” The credit for the way we fought today goes to the entire team. We knew how important this match is, the whole team was excited and I am happy with the way we played today. ,
He said, “The way Smriti and Pratika took up the responsibility, credit goes to them. We got a very good start. When both of them scored 200 runs, then we decided whether we could field Jemimah Rodrigues at number three. The way he batted, everyone was expecting the same from him. ,
On the pressure of playing the World Cup on home soil, he said, “Whenever you play at home, everyone has a lot of expectations from you. The audience always encourages us. This is a moment to enjoy rather than put pressure on yourself. Really happy with the way we performed. ,
He said, “It was not easy after three defeats, but everyone in the team stood firm. The way we encouraged each other shows how positive we were. We knew that the last three matches were not good, but we were going to change that. Today was the right time and I’m so glad we were able to do this. ,