India would like to forget T20 World Cup match vs New Zealand: Jemimah Rodrigues

India batter Rodrigues said that the team would like to forget their T20 World Cup opener against New Zealand. A jittery India failed to chase down 161 in their first match, and ended up losing by 58 runs.

In Short

• India lost to New Zealand by 58 runs in the T20 World Cup opener
• Jemimah Rodrigues said that the team would like to forget this game
• India now have an uphill battle in the 2024 tournament

India batter Jemimah Rodrigues said that the team would like to forget their Women's T20 World Cup 2024 opener against New Zealand. India fell to a shock loss against New Zealand, who had lost 10 games in a row before this. The Harmanpreet Kaur side failed to chase down 161 runs on Friday, October 4, and were bowled out for just 102 runs in Dubai.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, Jemimah said that India needed to pick themselves up quickly and show the character that this team had. After losing to NZ, India have an uphill task of beating Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, if they are to qualify for the semi-finals of the tournament.

“Today would be the game we’d like to forget. This is a World Cup and we need to keep moving on and picking ourselves up – we can’t say stuck on this game. We need to pick ourselves up and show the character of this team,” Rodrigues said in India’s post-match press conference.

Women's T20 World Cup, IND vs NZ: Match Report

“Going forward I think we need to have the right approach because the tournament’s not over. We need to take some positives from this game and a lot of learnings from this game,” she further added.

On the day, none of India's batters showed up against New Zealand. Jemimah was not happy with her performance as well and stated that it was her responsibility to handle the innings after India had lost Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma and Harmanpreet Kaur for just 42 runs inside the powerplay.

“I know with my game I’m ready to bat anywhere the team wants me. Today, because I was batting well, I had some form in the warm-up games, it was my responsibility to make sure we built a partnership after losing wickets," Jemimah said.

India will next play Pakistan on October 6 at the Dubai International Stadium.