Like Virat Kohli, Harmanpreet backs her instincts

Nov.24 (CRICKETNMORE) - Rain has not helped Virat Kohli's Twenty20 team. They lost the first game of the three-match series on Duckworth-Lewis (D/L) method and the second one was washed out when India had a great chance of winning chasing a modest score.

It was frustrating for the players seeing the covers being taken out and immediately brought back a couple of times, revising and reducing the overs to a ridiculous mandatory minimum of five. The rain gods did not want this farce. 

Some six hours earlier, in another part of the world, about 16,500 km from Melbourne, the Indian women's team not only lost a more critical T20 game, they also missed a great chance of winning World championship after bowing out to England in the semi-final at Antigua. 

Even as the Indian team headed for a big defeat, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur did not need a meteorologist to tell her about the impending storm, brewing up over her decision to drop the team's most experienced player and the highest scorer in the two shortest formats of the game and her predecessor Mithali Raj, playing in her last World T20 World Championship, which has now been renamed the T20 World Cup.

Harmanpreet was quick to realise the gravity of the situation and wanted to put an end to the controversy at her post-match presser. She rehearsed her lines well: "Whatever we decided, we decided for the team. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So, no regrets, I am proud of the way we've played."

"This is learning for us because we are a young team, sometimes you have to change the game as per the wicket," Harmanpreet added.

"The way we play - aggressive cricket - is a positive. Earlier we were a defensive team and now we are an attacking one," the Indian skipper further expressed.

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