'Our pacers keep getting injured, need to work on that' - Harmanpreet Kaur after India's Tri-Nation series win

The Indian team had a morale-boosting campaign in Colombo as they outclassed Sri Lanka and South Africa to win a Tri-Nation series ahead of the highly-anticipated Women's ODI World Cup in September-October. In the final, Harmanpreet Kaur & Co. defeated Chamaari Athapaththu's Sri Lanka by 97 runs on Sunday, May 11 to emerge as the ultimate winners.

Batting first, India posted a mammoth 342/7 on the back of a splendid century from Smriti Mandhana (116) and useful contributions from Harleen Deol (47), Jemimah Rodrigues (44), and Harmanpreet (41). In reply, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 245 as Sneh Rana starred with figures of 4/38 in Women in Blue's defence.

In the post-match presentation ceremony, Harmanpreet said she was happy with the batting performance in the final. However, she emphasised improvements in departments like fielding, bowling and building good partnerships. The Indian skipper also mentioned Mandhana and Rana's exemplary performances. After finishing as the highest wicket-taker, the latter won the Player of the Series award. Harmanpreet, however, hoped that the frequent injuries to the pacers would stop in the coming days.

"Proud of the entire team, they really played good cricket. Really happy with the way we batted today. The improvement never stops though, such as areas like fielding, bowling and building good partnerships. Our medium pacers keep getting injured, so need to work on that. The team is working on that. But we're going to try and keep playing good cricket. But the way the other batters apart from Smriti and me, the way they batted was a big positive. The way Sneh Rana bowled was also a big positive. There are a lot of positives to talk about, but just want to enjoy the moment right now," Harmanpreet said.

Meanwhile, centurion Mandhana said that she tried to assess the conditions while the Sri Lankan bowlers held their lines. However, the Indian batters found ways to score. The opening batter highlighted that the wickets have been good for batting throughout the series, but still, the Indian bowlers have fared well.

"Mostly we plan our innings to first assess the conditions. Initially they held their lines, but later on we found ways to score. All the wickets have been really good batting wickets. Not that great to bowl, but our bowlers did well regardless," Mandhana said after the match.

We have to improve our fielding: Chamari Athapaththu

Sri Lankan captain Chamari Athapaththu said that the fielding needs to improve if Sri Lanka are to do well in the World Cup. She also mentioned the need to have a few power hitters in the lineup.

"First of all, congratulations to India. They played really well today. 300 plus is not easy to chase, we fought hard, but we dropped some catches, and missed some run-outs as well. Even our bowling unit struggled in the middle overs, but Smriti batted really well. We have to improve our fielding, we dropped catches and missed run-out chances throughout the tournament. SLC is trying to get new fielding coaches as well, so we need to work on it. We also need to improve our batting, we need some power-hitters, but work needs to be done before the World Cup," Athapaththu said.

Mandhana, Rana shine as IND decimate SL in tri-series final

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Mandhana, Rana shine as IND decimate SL in tri-series final

Meanwhile, Rana mentioned the hard work she had been putting in behind the scenes ahead of the series. She sounded confident about doing well in the impending World Cup at home.

"I am very pleased to have contributed. Coming after so many months, I worked very hard, so I'm very grateful. The plan was simple - just stick to pace-off deliveries and yorkers. Worked with the bowling coach a lot, and it worked out. [World Cup] Very confident, especially in my team, who worked so hard and played brilliantly," Rana stated.