After being eliminated from the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup by Australia, captain Harmanpreet Kaur stated on Sunday that India did not play to their “standards” and that a “rethink” was necessary.
India will not go to the semifinals of the competition after the Australians defeated them by six wickets at the Lord’s.
“Today we were in the game for quite some time but still I think we didn’t play to our standards and as a group we need to rethink about a lot of things,” PTI quoted Kaur as saying in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Kaur, who scored a fluent fifty, was candid enough to acknowledge that India’s performance against front-line countries in this tournament was lacking.
“I think at the end of the day we got a decent total on the board. At one stage, I thought we were a little short but in the last over I thought I did the job for us. But we didn’t play well. Australia bowled well. Throughout the tournament, we didn’t play well against good teams. We need to improve against good teams,” she said.
Veteran batters Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner, who both scored fifty runs, were praised by Australian captain Sophie Molineux for their game-winning partnership of 100 runs for the fourth wicket.
“Those two batted beautifully. The way those two use their smarts, use their skills and target the short boundary and get the little things going, great to see those two get together and put on a big partnership,” she said.
“We just had to hang in there as things changed real quick. Pez (Perry) said 170 is very, very gettable and her actions speak louder than words and she was good to go out there and chase it down with Ash,” she added.
Perry, the player of the match, expressed their happiness at defeating a formidable opponent like India.
“It’s been a wonderful day for us. Incredible atmosphere. To do it against India, who we’ve had many battles with, was a really special day. We obviously got to see how India bat and knew it was a good wicket and just needed a good partnership. Ash was superb. Targeted the first two balls of every over and got regular boundaries,” said Perry.
