Women's T20 WC: Virat Kohli's heroics at MCG inspired win against Pakistan, says Jemimah Rodrigues

Cape Town [South Africa], February 13 (ANI): India batter Jemimah Rodrigues said that Virat Kohli's heroic knock of 82* against Pakistan during the ICC Men's T20 World Cup last year at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) inspired the team's win against Pakistan during their Women's T20 World Cup clash at Cape Town.

India registered a thrilling seven-wicket victory against Pakistan in a humdinger of a match to start their Women's T20 World Cup on Sunday at Newlands.

Rodrigues blasted a brilliant 53 not out off 38 deliveries consisting of eight boundaries to steer her side to a memorable win.

And these exploits saw her emulate Kohli's similarly decisive innings in the men's competition last year, anchoring India to a heart-thumping four-wicket triumph with a stunning 82 not out off 53 balls in Melbourne.

Rodrigues said playing against Pakistan injected an extra edge to their Group B showdown and memories of watching Kohli helped haul India over the line.

The 22-year-old was quoted as saying by ICC after the match: "India vs Pakistan matches are always a little bit more special - we spoke about it in the team meeting. Growing up we always watched these matches. I remember watching the match at the MCG where Virat Kohli played such an extraordinary knock. We did speak about it but we also just wanted to go out there and put our first win on the board. We just wanted to go out, play the same cricket and with the same intensity as usual."

"I knew we had to build partnerships, and I knew if we took it deep we will win. We knew they would bowl a bad ball eventually and we would capitalise - it was a difficult wicket but being set helped. This was a team effort. We will let the win sink in, but the tournament has just begun. We want to do the simple things correctly and then the results will take care of themselves," added the batter.

Coming to the match, Pakistan put on a total of 149/4 in 20 overs after electing to bat first. After the team was reduced to 68/4 in 12.1 overs, it was skipper Bismah Maroof (68* off 55 balls) and Ayesha Naseem (43* off 25 balls) who pulled back Pakistan into the contest with an 81-run stand for the fifth wicket.

Spinner Radha Yadav (2/21) was the pick of the bowlers for India. All-rounder Deepti Sharma also picked up one wicket.

Chasing 150, opener Shafali Verma (33 off 25 balls) played a solid knock to provide a good start to Women in Blue's run-chase. Yastika Bhatia (17) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (16) failed to make much impact with the bat. India was left in a tricky situation at 93/3 in 13.3 overs.

From there, Jemimah teamed up with wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh and won the game for India. Richa played a hard-hitting cameo of 31* in just 20 balls, which provided a great support to Jemimah's anchoring effort.

Nashra Sandhu took 2/15 in four overs. Sadia Iqbal also picked up 1/25 in four overs.

Jemimah was the 'Player of the Match' for her half-century.

Brief Score: India 151/3 (Jemimah Rodrigues 53*, Richa Ghosh 31*; Nashra Sandhu 2-15) vs Pakistan 149/4 (Bismah Maroof 68*, Ayesha Naseem 43*; Radha Yadav 2-21) (ANI)