Women's T20 World Cup: Veda Krishnamurthy urges India not to get complacent by win over Australia

India's middle-order batswoman Veda Krishnamurthy has said that India cannot let themselves get distracted by their win over Australia and must focus on the task at hand when they take on Bangladesh in their second Group A match of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women's T20 World Cup at the WACA Ground in East Perth on Monday.

The Women in Blue’s impressive bowling display lit up the opening match of the showpiece event in Sydney, with Poonam Yadav playing a starring role under the lights with four wickets to halt the defending champions’ lowly run chase of 133 and seal an opening Group A win for her side. 

But Krishnamurthy does not want to see India let their emotions get the better of them, insisting that the top and middle order need to survive longer to take the heat off their bowling attack in Perth.

“We want to make sure we have enough of a score for our bowlers to defend. At the same time, we can’t be too ambitious with our strokes or risk being run short, but we need to make sure we get enough runs on board. As you all saw, our bowling attack is doing really well. It’s all about giving them that extra cushioning," the ICC press release quoted Krishnamurthy as saying. 

“If we had finished 15 runs shorter on Friday, it would have been a lot more difficult for us.We can’t be complacent with the victory. We have to let go of those emotions now and focus on repeating all the good things we did," she added. 

For Bangladesh, the match against India will be their first of the tournament, the Tigers will aim to spring an upset and begin their quest for a maiden Women’s T20 World Cup title on a high. 

Bangladesh skipper Salma Khatun urged her side not to dwell on India’s stunning opening victory and instead focus on getting their own performance right at the WACA.

“We’re not worried about the result between India and Australia. We’re just focused on our own.We’ve been watching the opening matches of the tournament with keen interest and we are really excited to get going in this one," Khatun said. 

“It was great to see Thailand as a newcomer do well with their fielding and bowling. They were unable to get the result because of their inexperience but they put on a very good show and we love to see that.All our girls put their 100 per cent into the warm-up match against Pakistan and we hope to have a positive start at this World Cup," she concluded.