Another step towards the World Cup final

I have to say I am really proud of the way New Zealand bounced back from the defeat against England to beat India today. We are getting closer to the World Cup final but that doesn’t mean we can take Pakistan – our next Super Six opponents - lightly.

And we still have to improve in some of the areas, especially fielding. We need to take the opportunities we get: today we missed some run-outs and dropped a few catches and that can hurt us in the long run. Overall we have to be more consistent.

We gave away 21 wides today but you know it’s not like the bowlers mean to bowl them. As a captain, I try and encourage my players, give the bowlers time to settle down and have a chat with them if required. After the game today we had a de-briefing where the bowlers acknowledged that they needed to work on their lines better.

The Indian lower order, led by Reema Malhotra, batted really well and I don’t think we could have done anything to stop them. India have been successful in scoring that way – they have started out slow and taken advantage of the Powerplays to get the runs. They have relied on scoring in the death overs and that’s what they did today as well.

I am also happy that our top order is taking the responsibility of batting through the innings. Suzie [Bates] did that for us today. Learning from our failed run-chase against England, we drew up a gameplan where we wanted Kate Pulford to go out and play her attacking shots while I consolidated. Then Suzie would come in and take charge. She did just that today; it was a very mature innings from her and I can tell you she’s stoked about it.

The pitch was very good and we know the Indian spinners can tie us down so we wanted to get going before they came on.

While our net run-rate is lower than India’s and Australia’s, I think we just need to concentrate on winning against Pakistan to reach the final. It’s not too far away now!