Jhulan all praise for spinners

 India’s experienced medium pacer Jhulan Gowsami, who played an important knock to bail India out of a crisis in the first ODI against New Zealand here on Sunday, credited the team’s spinners for a fighting performance.

“It was always going to be difficult defending a low total but credit goes to the spinners. They bowled well and the team showed great fighting spirit. We just told ourselves to take the match till the end and grab as many chances as possible. We executed our plans well,” said Jhulan.

Speaking about her knock, the 32-year old said that the ball was coming on to the bat nicely and she enjoyed her stay at the crease. “I wanted to stay at the crease for as long as possible. I knew that if we bat till the 40th over, we would reach closer to the 150-run mark,” she said.

The win gave India, who were placed at the bottom of the ICC Women’s Championship before the series, the crucial two points and strengthened their hopes of a direct qualification to the 2017 World Cup. Jhulan also said that Indian batswomen had a bad day at office. “Lack of good partnerships was our problem. Our batswomen paid price for some poor shot selection. But it happens in cricket and we will try and not repeat our mistakes,” she said. 

New Zealand’s Leigh Kasperek, playing her first ODI, said that she was happy to return with an impressive three-wicket haul but expressed her disappointment on not ending on the winning side.

“We could have restricted them to a lesser total but we are happy with our bowling overall. Our batting did not click today but there are four more games to go and we look to do better,” she said.