🏏ICC Women's T20I WC 2024: Group A: M 19- PakW vs NZW, Page 70🏏 - Page 51

Clinical performance from New Zealand! Their bowlers, especially spinners, did a good job to restrict the Lankans to 115 despite Chamari Athapaththum getting a start. In reply, New Zealand didn't get off to a flier. In fact, they didn't hit a single boundary in the first four overs and Suzie Bates was struggling. That's when Georgia Plimmer stepped up. She kept coming down the track and scored majority of runs down the ground. She notched up her second T20I fifty and her partnership with Amelia Kerr almost sealed the deal.

Congratulations to NZ for winning the match.

Congratulations to Georgia Plimmer for winning the PoTM award.

Cheers..

Chamari Athapaththu: We didn't play our best cricket throughout the tournament. We needed another 20-25 runs. I told them to play fearless cricket. We had nothing to lose. The pressure is high. As cricketers, we have to take one game at a time. We lost our first game against Pakistan and our mindset went down.

Sophie Devine: Really pleased. We didn't bowl well as much as we can. Really happy for Plimmer. We actually didn't. We wanted to win the game by 16th, 17th win. We'll know exactly where we stand when we face Pakistan.

Georgia Plimmer | Player of the Match: We talked a lot as a group about how we want to about the powerplay in these conditions, being able to be out there with someone like Suzie (Bates) and talk through my options, it really goes a long way and being able to just be aggressive and play my brand, sometimes it might not come off but if I can offer my team a good start, I will be happy. Just wanted to back my skills lately, had good conversations with the coaches and all the players in the team to try and go out there and play my brand. It is a pretty special group that we got, we love each other outside cricket as well. Just the group is very clear on how we want to play and attack. World Cups don't come around all the time, so we are trying to put our best foot forward. We had a bit of hard six months, so to come here and get a few wins under our belt gives loads of confidence.

Georgia Plimmer | Player of the Match: We talked a lot as a group about how we want to about the powerplay in these conditions, being able to be out there with someone like Suzie (Bates) and talk through my options, it really goes a long way and being able to just be aggressive and play my brand, sometimes it might not come off but if I can offer my team a good start, I will be happy. Just wanted to back my skills lately, had good conversations with the coaches and all the players in the team to try and go out there and play my brand. It is a pretty special group that we got, we love each other outside cricket as well. Just the group is very clear on how we want to play and attack. World Cups don't come around all the time, so we are trying to put our best foot forward. We had a bit of hard six months, so to come here and get a few wins under our belt gives loads of confidence.

Chamari Athapaththu: We didn't play our best cricket throughout this tournament. Our batting unit improved a bit but we needed another 20-25 runs. The bowlers did their best, but not enough for the win. I told them to play fearless and positive cricket. We had nothing to lose. We have played good cricket over the last 12 months. Expectations is very high, there is some kind of pressure. As cricketers, we have to take one game at a time. We lost our first game against Pakistan and our mindset went down. We kept trying but it didn't work.

Sophie Devine: Really pleased. Disappointing in our last match. We didn't bowl as well as we know we can. To restrict Sri Lanka and stay in the contest for as long as we did and to be able to chase it down ... Plimmer was outstanding today, super proud of her, really happy for her today. We actually didn't (go hard to improve NRR). We wanted to win the game by 17th-18th over. We'll know exactly where we stand when we face Pakistan and what's going to be required. We'll celebrate tonight's win and then go back to the dressing room. (On Plimmer) She's copped a few bit of criticisms. She had a great knock against Australia in Australia. She has a bright future.

A forgettable World Cup for Sri Lanka. They won the Asia Cup earlier this year but go home without registering a single win in this competition. New Zealand, on the other hand, remain third on the points table as their NRR is inferior to India's. While India face a tough encounter against the defending champions, NZ's final match will be against Pakistan. Devine and Co. will know the exact equation to qualify for the semis. On that note, it's curtains down on this match. There's one more game lined up - Bangladesh vs South Africa in Dubai. See you there...

Next page please for the new match.