Women’s World Cup T20 – Ind vs NZ – Rodrigues challenges India to bounce back from loss to New Zealand

Australia, defending champions and title favourites, open their campaign on Saturday against Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, South Africa defeated West Indies by 10 wickets in the previous match on Friday to meet Bangladesh at the top of Group B, with Bangladesh playing England on Saturday.

Today could be a game we would like to forget, because this is the World Cup,” Rodrigues said. “We have to keep picking ourselves up. We can’t stay stuck in this game. We need to pick ourselves up, and I think that will show the character of this team.

“We know that every game from here is very important for us. We know that, but at the same time, we will go one game at a time and make sure we stick to our plan and do our job well. We can do that, I think we play our best cricket, I think we can win games. “

It was a major turnaround for a team that was out of the 2023 World T20 Cup after heavy losses to Australia and South Africa, and lost all eight matches they played – including five T20Is – against England in June and July. .

But Rodrigues said his team was not caught by New Zealand’s attack on the powerplay.

“They came out with a big intention,” he said. “We created opportunities, but unfortunately we didn’t make the most of them. Then the way we came back after the start was… I mean, there are not many good things in this game, but still, moving forward, we need the right way because the competition is not over yet. We need to take the positives from this game and learn a lot in this game.

“It’s not the easiest situation, it’s really hot here in Dubai, but I think we have enough time to get used to the conditions so we don’t make excuses, like it’s too hot or whatever. Just us. we need to do our job and win the team game with this and we all live in India, so we are used to such situations.”

“We know how important Amelia Kerr’s wicket is and yes, at the time it felt a bit like, ‘why didn’t it go in our favour?'” Rodrigues said. “But at the same time, I think we did our best. We talked to the referee, and then we had to accept the referee’s decision and move on. I think that’s what we did very well, that we just started. That and we got him out early that worked for us.”