Dubai: Young left-arm spinner Sree Charani, whose incisive spell helped India dismantle Pakistan in their Women’s T20 Asia Cup clash, said the team’s slow bowlers map out their strategy together before matches and then focus on executing it as well as possible.
Charani (3/7), Prema Rawat (3/9) and Deepti Sharma (2/5) combined to choke the life out of Pakistan’s batting, bowling them out for their lowest-ever T20I total of 55 before India cruised to a seven-wicket win with 68 balls to spare on Saturday.
India, who had already secured a semifinal berth from Group A before the match, finished on top with six points after winning all three of their games.
“In the meeting, we three sit together… Prema, me, Deepti di and Radha (Yadav) di and we discuss what to do (in the match). So, we just try to implement that here (on the field) whatever Deepti and Radha di say,” said Charani, who wreaked havoc on Pakistan’s top order, dismissing Shawaal Zulfiqar, Gull Feroza, and Ayesha Zafar, after Shafali Verma had provided India with the first breakthrough by removing Muneeba Ali.
Charani’s double strike in the sixth over left Pakistan reeling at 29/3 after they had raced to 27 without loss, and they never recovered from the setback.
The 22-year-old spinner, who is just one wicket away from completing a half-century of T20I wickets, attributed her success to keeping things simple and focusing on getting the basics right.
“It’s just about myself. Like I just want to focus on my things… I want to do my things correct,” she said.
Charani said that after assessing the pitch and sensing that it would offer turn, she simply focused on bowling at the stumps and let the ball do the rest.
“I just tried to bowl on the stumps. By seeing the pitch, we know it may turn so I just focused on that.” Charani also heaped praise on Prema, whose sharp leg-breaks left Pakistan’s batters struggling, describing her as a naturally gifted cricketer capable of excelling in all departments of the game.
“I think Prema is superb, natural talent. She has everything fielding, batting, bowling, everything.” Charani felt a score of around 120 was par on a wicket that offered assistance to the bowlers.
“I feel 121 is a good score on this wicket is a good score,” agreeing that promoting Deepti up the batting order was a tactical decision.
She added that India would take things “one game at a time” from here on.