It was a heartbreak for the Indian women at Newlands as they fell short of a staggering target by only 5 runs despite an early crumble that saw three of their best batters back to the pavilion in no time. The Indian captain partnered excellently with Jemimah Rodrigues before taking things on her own shoulders that saw her bringing out an aggressive brand of cricket.
The Indian bowlers also had a couple of dropped chances that eventually proved to be way too costly, allowing the Aussies to post that mammoth total on the cards. Harmanpreet Kaur was livid with herself at the end of the game and even after she lost herself in the thick of things, leaving the lower middle order with too much of an ask.
Talking about the entire fixture in the post-match awards show, Harmanpreet Kaur said, “Can’t feel unluckier than this. We got the momentum back with Jemi. To lose from here, we weren’t expecting this. (Tears – why?) The way I got run out, can’t be unluckier than that. Putting the effort was important and we were happy to go to the last ball. We wanted to fight till the last ball.”
When asked about the toss, the Indian skip added, “Today we wanted to chase too, so that was fine when they chose to bat. Even after losing first two wickets, we knew we had a good batting line-up. I should give credit to Jemimah, she gave us the momentum. Happy to see some good performances.”
She concluded by talking about the entire game, adding, “We played some good cricket. Today was something where we wanted to play our natural game. Few of us did that. (Errors in the field) We again gave some easy catches away. When you have to win, you have to take your chances. We can only learn from these.”
