Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said India need to regroup and find a way to move forward after their 1-4 series loss to South Africa ahead of the T20 World Cup in England, which is two months away.
India batters failed in the chase of a modest target of 156, falling short by 23 runs to cap the five-match T20I series dominated by the hosts South Africa.
“Need to sit together as a group and think how to move forward. Disappointing for us, lots of positives and learnings for us,” Harmanpreet said at the post-match presentation.
India had a jittery start in the powerplay, losing Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues inside the first four overs. They never recovered from there as the Proteas bowlers kept chipping away with wickets at regular intervals.
“We did well in patches today. In batting, the Powerplay was something that cost us. Didn’t get too many runs and lost two wickets. It’s disappointing, need to keep working hard.”
For South Africa, captain Laura Wolvaardt led by example once again, scoring an unbeaten 92 off 56 balls. She held the innings together even as wickets kept falling at the other end.
Wolvaardt ended the five-match series with 330 runs, and has now scored fifty or more in six of her last seven international innings.
“We’ve had massive improvements in all departments in the last couple of months though. It’s been a very good season for that,” she said after being presented with the Player of the Series award.
On the conditions, Wolvaardt said it was a tough wicket but credited her team to put their best show on the day.
“It was a bit of a tough wicket today, but the powerplay was awesome. I liked how aggressive we’ve been in the powerplay. We thought it might be a flat wicket, but we weren’t surprised it was low and slow. Batting first was the right choice. There’s always things to look at and improve, the catching being one,” she added.
