After smashing a historic 103 to lead her side to an emphatic win against New Zealand in the first match of the ongoing World T20, Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur has revealed that she had to battle stomach cramps during her innings.
"Yesterday, I was having a little bit back problem. In the morning, I was not feeling well, when I came to the ground I was feeling a little low and getting some cramps," Kaur said after the match.
The right-hander also revealed that she was uncomfortable taking singles and twos and hence, decided to go for the big shots instead of investing too much energy on running between the wickets.
"Later on when I went for batting ... when initially I was running two runs, I got a cramp, and after that physio gave me the medicine and then it settled down. Then I thought instead of running too much if I can get more, make a big shot, because if I'm running too much then I was getting more cramps," the captain said.
Her innings started slowly, she was sussing the conditions and at one stage she was 5 off 13 balls.
'To be honest, I was nervous'
"Well, it was the first game. And to be honest, I was nervous ... and I'm also human, I also get nervous," Harmanpreet said.
"But yes when I was middling the ball, once I started middling the ball after that I started just getting my shots," she added.
She posted a match-winning 134-run stand with Jemimah Rodrigues for the fourth wicket as India posted 194 runs in their 20 overs. The captain went from 50 in the 15th over to 100 in 20th - it had taken her only 16 balls.
"Well, I was really not looking at how many runs I was getting. I was just looking how much we need to win the game and we knew they have really good batters," Harmanpreet said.
India next play Pakistan and despite the win against New Zealand, the captain wants the batting order to be more responsible and improve in the batting powerplay.
"We need to focus on the first six overs, because when you have only two fielders outside, how much can you get, it's always a plus point for us," Harmanpreet said.
