Plan was to take the match till the end, says Velocity spinner Ekta Bisht

Velocity spinner Ekta Bisht has said the six-day quarantine time in Dubai gave them ample time to plot on the opposition as they started off their Women’s T20 Challenge campaign with a five wicket-victory over Supernovas on Wednesday (November 4).



“After we landed in Dubai, we had six-day quarantine. That time we the bowlers interacted among ourselves how to approach the opposition,” Bisht, who returned with three wickets for 22 runs in her four overs, told reporters during the post-match press conference.



“Then we got open nets, we had a look at the wicket which looked on the slower side. Then we were also watching men’s IPL matches where the wicket behaved slow and prepared a plan accordingly. We also accessed the opposition batters, their strengths and weaknesses,” she added.



Winning the toss, Velocity bowlers did a really good job in restricting the opposition with Leigh Kasperek and Jahanara Alam sharing four wickets between them.  In reply, chasing a par 127-run target, Velocity lost openers Danielle Wyatt and Shafali Verma early before stumbling to 38 for 3 in the ninth over.



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But useful contributions from Veda Krishnamurthy, Sushma Verma and Sune Luus helped them over the line in the final ball of the match. “In the last five overs when we needed 50 runs, we did feel once that it’s difficult, but the way Sushma (Verma) and Sune (Luus) started hitting we felt like we are coming close. Our plan was to take the match till the last over and all credit goes to Sushma and Sune the way they won the match for us,” said the left-arm off-spinner.



The 34-year-old, who last played for India in 2019, also revealed her lockdown routine on how she kept herself fit and prepared for this tournament. “I worked a lot on my fitness during the lockdown and also focussed on my bowling rectifying the small mistakes.”



“Since I was in Almora all the time, I got to spend time with my coach Liakat Ali Khan to work on my bowling. Last time we came playing some domestic tournaments but this time the scenario is completely different. Felt good with my bowling,” she said.



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Speaking on her own performance, the veteran of 104 internationals said, “Every performance is important for me. But after the coronavirus pandemic, we got together after a long time and played good cricket. This performance was important to give me confidence and for the momentum of the team and I am happy to have executed the plans well.”



 



Meanwhile, Supernovas opener Chamari Atapattu has admitted they were 20-25 runs short on the day. “We targeted 145-150 because that’s a good score on this wicket,” said the Sri Lanka skipper. “We lost a couple of early wickets, so I and Harman (preet) spoke in the middle about rotating the strikes, taking ones and twos in those overs and after that try to hit because we both knew that we are capable of clearing the ropes. But unfortunately, I got out early on 44 runs.”



She also gave credit to Velocity batters to take the game away from them. “We have a well-experienced bowling line-up in especially Poonam Yadav and Shashikala Siriwardene. But Velocity batters played some really good cricket.



"They hit a couple of sixes that brought them in the game, but hopefully, we will do well in the next couple of games,” she said. “It was not easy to grip the ball in the second innings. But we have to learn from that and in the next game we can play some good cricket,” Atapattu said when asked whether the due factor played a role in the game.