India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said that they’ll discuss their strategy of fielding 5 frontline bowlers in the upcoming World Cup matches after the Women in Blue lost their Women’s World Cup encounter against Australia on Sunday. The captain, however, also said that this very same combination had given the Women in Blue much success so two bad games will not change that fact.
“We will sit and discuss. Because this combination has given us a lot of success in the past. I think two bad games are not going to make a big difference for us, going forward a lot of things we need to work it out. Hopefully we’ll come up with the best approach,” Kaur said at the post-match ceremony.
The Indian captain also praised the two openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal but rued the fact that they couldn’t capitalise on the start given by the two batters.
“Today the way we started we could have got 30-40 runs, we kept losing wickets in the last 6-7 overs, it was a good batting wicket and we didn’t capitalise. hey have been really outstanding for us from the last few games. They (opening batters) have been giving us a very good start and because of that we are able to post such totals. We did well but I think the last 5 overs cost us,” Harnan said.
“The last three games we were not able to bat in the middle overs, the lower order took the responsibility and they did the job for us. But today I think the first 40 overs were really good and the last 10 overs we were not executing that well. So I think in a game these things are going to happen. You are not going to be 100% all the time but it’s very important how you come back. The next two games are very important and I think there are a lot of positives from this game,” she added.
Kaur also lauded young bowler Sree Charani who got India back to the game, snapping up Alyssa Healy when the Australia skipper was threatening to singlehandedly finish the game off. Ultimately, it wasn’t to be but the bowler finished with figures of 3/41 in her allotted 10 overs.
“She has been outstanding. She’s always there whenever the team needs her. And today also she bowled really well. To all their batters, even when Healy was batting, she was not giving her anything easily. So we have a lot of hope from her. Whenever she’s there she can keep giving us breakthroughs,” she said.
