India's skipper Harmanpreet Kaur enjoyed a great start to the Women's Asia Cup on Friday after the team hammered Pakistan by seven wickets at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium.
Harmanpreet was spotless as a skipper on the field as she made the right bowling changes to decimate Pakistan's batting order for just 108.
In reply, India cruised to the target and Harmanpreet moved past her former captain Mithali Raj to become the leading run-getter in the Women's Asia Cup (T20I).
Leading into the game, Harmanpreet required four runs to go past Mithali, and she ended up remaining unbeaten after scoring five. She helped India chase the target down with 35 balls to spare.
Mithali played her last Women's Asia Cup (T20I) edition in 2018 and aggregated 402 runs in 10 matches. She averaged 67.00 with the bat in hand with the help of three fifties and scored her runs at a strike rate of 96.63.
On the other hand, Harmanpreet now has 404 runs to her name in the T20I format of the Women's Asia Cup. The right-handed batter averages 36.72 in the tournament and has accumulated runs at a strike rate of 100.49 with a solitary half-century.
Harmanpreet was full of praise for her bowlers who applied relentless pressure on the Pakistan batters and didn't let them have any breathing space. She also lauded her openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana for adopting a proactive approach and going hard after the target.
"Our bowlers and openers did the job. The first game is always a pressure game that sets the tone. Our entire unit played really well. When we were bowling, we were talking about early breakthroughs. With the bat, credit goes to Smriti and Shafali. We want to keep playing fearless cricket," Harmanpreet said during the post-match press conference.
