India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Tuesday said 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 in Ahmedabad.
Smriti Mandhana (100 off 122 balls), who wasn't able to showcase her class at the top of the order in the two previous games, made her 8th ODI hundred century, the most by an Indian in the format, while Kaur remained not out on 59 as India won the match by six wickets.
"It was important for us as we wanted to win this series at any cost," Kaur said at the post-match press conference.
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."
The captain praised Mandhana for her fine knock, which paved the way for a successful chase of a target of 233.
"Would like to give credit to Smriti, she was struggling early on but she managed to get runs. Really happy about our partnership."
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."
Mandhana said it has been a tough last few weeks for the team following the disappointing campaign in the T20 World Cup.
"Had to be little hard on myself early on and wait for the first 10 overs to go before taking the game on. For me what works is the harder way. Need to do it for the team first. Getting out early means I've let the team down and that thought doesn't let me sleep well."
New Zealand captain Sophie Devine took the defeat in her stride and said losing top player Amelia Kerr to injury affected the side.
"Incredibly proud of our players. We were down to just 12 players after losing our best player (Amelia Kerr) to injury. In difficult conditions, we did really well so very proud of our group. We fought really hard and now it's time to head home and have a bit of a break."
