India captain Harmanpreet Kaur gives credit to Smriti Mandhana's knock as India defeated New Zealand by six-wicket to win the ODI series 2-1 at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Smriti Mandhana scored 100 off 122 balls, achieving her eighth ODI century—the highest by an Indian in the format—after struggling in the previous two games. Harmanpreet Kaur also contributed significantly, remaining not out on 59 as India secured a six-wicket victory in the match.
"Would like to give credit to Smriti, she was struggling early on but she managed to get runs. Really happy about our partnership" Kaur said at the post-match press conference.
Harmanpreet also said that her team wanted to win the three-match Women's ODI series against New Zealand "at any cost" after a forgettable outing in the recent T20 World Cup.
India failed to reach the semifinals of the T20 showpiece in the UAE and entered the third and final ODI against the Kiwis with the series tied at 1-1 here.
"It was important for us as we wanted to win this series at any cost," added Kaur.
She added, "As I said in the morning, we discussed a lot of things and really happy we could execute today. Whenever we play, we always want to give our 100% but sometimes things don't go your way.
"As a professional cricketer you have to keep pushing yourself and keep going. We discussed these things in the team meeting so really happy we could come back after that loss in the last game."
She also said the team needs to work a lot more to become the best fielding side in the world.
"Always talking about our fielding, that's an area we need to keep working hard. We are working hard but just waiting for the results till the time we can be the best fielding side."
