By Admin 
Despite suffering a crushing defeat by 9 wickets at the hands of Sri Lanka in the Women’s T20 World Cup on Tuesday, Ireland captain Gabby Lewis remains hopeful about her team’s progress. The captain says that the experience of playing against strong opponents will motivate the team to do better.
In this match played on the County Ground, Ireland scored 130 runs losing 5 wickets, in response to which Sri Lanka won the match in 15.3 overs.
Talking about Ireland’s innings, Lewis said that the most important task was to revive the innings after the team’s score reached 30/3 during the powerplay. Ireland’s innings was in trouble after Amy Hunter (0) was run out on the fourth ball of the innings, after which Orla Prendergast (0) and Rebecca Stokell (13) were also out early. Lewis along with Paul scored 66 runs in 59 balls for the fourth wicket, due to which the innings was stable and Ireland managed to make a good score.
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After the match Lewis said, ‘Yes, it was definitely difficult. You just have to rebuild the innings. Me and Lia (Paul) did this very well. The main thing for us was to build a partnership, and we focused on that.
Despite the initial jitters, Lewis said the team did not want its batsmen to be too cautious. He said, ‘We still want girls to come on the field and play freely. We did not want the girls to step back, because no one wants that. We still have to score the required score to win. I am sure the girls will learn and come back better.
The Ireland captain also talked about the rising standards in international women’s cricket, admitting that the gap between her team and the top teams in the world is not as big as some people think. The captain said, ‘Definitely, the level has gone up, but it also increases your hunger as a cricketer. After every World Cup, you go back and think that we were very close to winning. How close we were to beating New Zealand and how well we played in between. It’s just a matter of everything happening correctly. This is what inspires you to become better.
Lewis scored 59 runs against Sri Lanka. This was his second consecutive half-century in the tournament, but he acknowledged that the result of the match overshadowed this individual achievement. Lewis also praised Sri Lankan captain Atapattu, whose century almost ended Ireland’s hopes of defending the 130-run score.
Lewis said, ‘He is a world-class player. She is definitely a player who needs to be out; Otherwise, what happened today can happen. It was a brilliant innings, and he did exactly what his team needed.
The Irish team has lost its first four matches. The team is already out of the title race. Despite another defeat, Lewis is confident Ireland can finish their campaign on a positive note. This team will face West Indies in its last group-stage match on Saturday.
He said, ‘A victory. We defeated them in the tri-series. That belief still exists in the team. It’s just a matter of going back, correcting our mistakes and understanding where we went wrong today. The ground and time are the same, so hopefully we can have good talks about changing the situation for Saturday.
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