Womens T20 WC: Jemimah Rodrigues credits team for digging deep in win over Pakistan: 'This was a team effort'

Jemimah Rodrigues' unbeaten knock of 53 off 38 balls and an unbeaten partnership of 58 runs helped India women's cricket team beat arch-rivals Pakistan by seven wickets chasing 150-run target in 19 overs.

Stitching valuable partnerships

"Richa and I had a good partnership against Bangladesh too. This innings means a lot to me. Hadn't been getting scores for a long time," said Jemimah Rodrigues after bagging the 'Player of the match' award in the post-match presentation ceremony.

India at one stage were in a spot of bother at 93/3 after the dismissal of captain Harmanpreet Kaur in 13.3 overs but Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh held their nerves to take the team beyond the finish line.

"I actually don't know what to say. I knew we had to build partnerships. I knew if we take it deep we will win, " said Rodrigues.

Richa Ghosh too played a brilliant knock of 31 not out off 20 balls to help India chase down the target from a tricky situation where the team needed 41 runs to win off four overs.

"We were just taking it over by over. If we knew we were there till the end, we would win. We knew they would bowl a bad ball eventually and we would capitalise. It was a difficult wicket but being set helped," explained Rodrigues.

Important winning start

India have made a winning start to their ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2023 campaign. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side will now face West Indies in their next match on Wednesday.

"This was a team effort. We will let the win sink in, but the tournament has just begun. We want to do simple things correctly. The results will take care of themselves," said Rodrigues.

With only two teams from each group making it to the semi-final, the win against Pakistan has made the road ahead for Harmanpreet Kaur-led side much easier.