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ICC WOMEN'S WORLD T20

February 22, 2020

Harsha de Silva

Perth, Western Australia, Western Australia

New Zealand - 131/3, Sri Lanka - 127/7

HARSHA DE SILVA: ... now batting. And also with the start we got to the bowl, the missed opportunities probably cost us a game.

Q. What goes through your mind when you do see those chances? Sophie Devine goes up --
HARSHA DE SILVA: It's always hard. I know the girls are training really hard and want to make a mark in this tournament. And drop chances -- like they say catchers win matches. So now what if we had taken those catches.

Q. Do you think that batting depth and maybe the bowling depth sort of tails away from the team?
HARSHA DE SILVA: Well, I think we had a very good lead-up to the tournament pairing England in one of the practise games. And even today I thought our top-order batted really well. It's just towards the middle we sort of fell away with some good bowling and fielding. But if we had been a bit more smart in the middle overs not throwing wickets away between the 12th and the 17th over, I thought we were in line to making about 140-160, which was on.

Q. The team's been a little bit written off compared to some of the others coming to the tournament. Has the team wanted to make a bit of a statement that they can really match it with some of the top teams here?
HARSHA DE SILVA: Yeah, we want -- as I told in one of the other interviews as well we're not here to make numbers; we want to, like, win this tournament if possible and our first target is to get to the top ones, we still are in line for it in the next three games, we still have a spot in the knockout stages.

Q. Australia is going to be pretty hungry to bounce back. What are your thoughts heading into that match?
HARSHA DE SILVA: Well, I think we all agree that Australia is one of the favourites in this tournament, but India played really well to their strengths. And we plan to do the same, to play it as well and try and beat Australia.

Q. Do you think the pressure is on them given that it's their home tournament?
HARSHA DE SILVA: It's hard for me to say from this side of the fence, but I'm pretty sure there must be pressure on them playing at home and also losing the first game.

Q. In terms of the challenge of taking on Australia, can you just talk to me about how daunting that is and how much the girls get up for a challenge like that?
HARSHA DE SILVA: Well, we are up for a challenge. We know that every game is going to be pretty tough, especially in our group. And having, like, Australia, New Zealand and India and even Bangladesh it's going to be a daunting task to make the top two in that group. But that's what we train for and we're looking for challenge and hopefully a win.

Q. Did you learn anything from India about how they kind of tackled Australia?
HARSHA DE SILVA: I like to play my cards a bit closer to my heart. Yes, we definitely have plans for them and obviously the wickets are going to be different from the Sydney track, which was played on yesterday. So we probably have to look at other options.

Q. As you mentioned the fielding potentially cost you today. It seems like between maybe the top four teams in the world and everybody else that the fielding is one of the biggest differences. What do you think you need to work on to continue to improve that?
HARSHA DE SILVA: So obviously more catching practise probably. And the girls don't play much under the lights. We had one training session here a couple of days back with about half of our fielding, and even back home we had a couple of sessions, but no excuses. If you had to play under the lights we have to play under the lights. But I'm pretty sure they will bounce back with a better performance in the next game.

Q. I guess a lot gets spoken about how much the batting relies on Chamari. Is there anybody else that you were pleased with how they went about their innings today?
HARSHA DE SILVA: I think the other opener Hasini Perera. I thought she batted well. And even our number four batsman, Harshitha Madhavi. Both of them batted intelligently.

Q. (Off microphone)
HARSHA DE SILVA: We all know Chamari is the superstar on the team. She has not been getting a lot of runs on tour. She made some runs in this game and the England game. But even without her scoring, even during the preparation period back in Sri Lanka we were managing scores of 140, 160 in practise games. So, there's depth in the batting. It's just that it sort of didn't come together in the middle in this game and hopefully we'll fix it and come strong in the next round.

Q. A few thoughts of on Kaveesha Dilhari? She's quite young but seems to possess the kind of skill set that probably could help her make a move on the big stage probably in overseas leagues as well. Your thoughts on how she's developed over the recent past? What makes her so special?
HARSHA DE SILVA: In fact, this is the second T20 World Cup. We played her in the 2018 World Cup in West Indies as well. So, we saw her potential as 17 arose. But unfortunately she had an injury and was out of action for almost a year.

It's good to have her back, and as you said there are a few more players who probably would benefit from playing overseas in leagues. And these are great platform for them to perform and get to that stage.

Q. Any specific features about her bowling that makes her stand out? And also the nature of the injury, what sort of recovery achievement did she go through?
HARSHA DE SILVA: She had a stress fracture in her back so that took a bit longer than expected. But I think with her the strength is her consistency with the bowl, the control that she has. And she's a good all-around player; she can bat and a good fielder as well. So, she has a potential to become probably a good like a good all-around cricketer in the future.

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