Senior India batter Veda Krishnamurthy says her team seems destined to win the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in its maiden final appearance provided it keeps its nerve against four-time champion Australia here on Sunday.
Advantage
India will have the psychological advantage going into the final as it had stunned the defending champion by 17 runs in the tournament opener.
“It’s all about destiny, and I’m a big believer in destiny. I feel this is the way it was meant to be. There is a joke going around that this World Cup is made in such a way that it’s helping us, starting from the wickets to everything else,” she was quoted as saying by the tournament’s official website.
The Harmanpreet Kaur-led India reached the final on the basis of its unbeaten record after the semifinal against England was washed out on Thursday.
Veda, who was part of the Indian team that finished runner-up to England in the 2017 Women’s ODI World Cup, understands the pain of missing out on a world title. “Being in the final is just reward for the way we played in the group stages,” she said.
Having achieved the team’s first target of reaching the final, Veda said the Indians need to hold their nerve and remain focused on the big day.
“We said the first aim was to get to the final and take it from there. We’ve crossed the first stage. We need to make sure we hold our nerve and we do what we need to do on the final day,” she said.
India has a better recent record, with Harmanpreet’s outfit chasing down 173 in the recent tri-series and beating Australia by 17 runs in the World Cup opener.
But all’s not well for Veda on the personal front. She recovered from a series of single-digit scores in the tri-series to score 20 off 11 balls in a finishing role against Bangladesh.
Though she has just 35 runs from four matches, the Karnataka batter knows her role in the team.
“The role given to me has been very consistent in the last year. And, I’ve been supported by every individual — not just one or two. The entire team, with all the support staff have shown faith in me,” she said.
“I knew coming into the World Cup, I had the crucial role of finishing innings well, which I felt I was unable to do in the last World Cup in the West Indies,” she said.
Specific roles
Veda said specific roles had been assigned to each player and they all were trying to contribute as much as they could to help the team achieve its goal.
“I’m happy we’re all putting in efforts and executing our role properly. Even if it’s a smallish contribution of saving a couple of runs, it’s all panned out really well,” she said.
