Women’s World Cup T20 – India coach Amol Muzumdar says Australia’s experience made them successful

“I think we were in the game until the end, Australia’s experience made them successful,” said Muzumdar after the match. “I’m a little disappointed with the loss. I feel like we played very well. A few chances could have been taken and things could have been different.”

India dropped three points, missed one and a chance to get out of the field. India also had a close lbw call by Phoebe Litchfield go in favor of Australia.

Litchfield, who batted left-handed, was on 5 when he was hit on the pad by Deepti Sharma’s delivery while attempting a reverse sweep but was dismissed after only reviewing the ball. [accounting for her not having changed her stance before delivery] it is mounted on the outside leg. Litchfield added 10 more, including a last-ball six to set India to a target of 152 – the team’s highest total at this stage in the tournament. The next best was Australia’s 148 against New Zealand last week.

Muzumdar was vocal in his criticism of Litchfield’s decision, but he did not shy away from saying that it was “important.” He also looked at the team’s line of thinking in the middle order where they are chasing, where India need 85 with Harmanpreet and Deepti in good position. The pair added 63 off 55 balls, but went through six overs where they managed just three boundaries. They needed 70 from the last seven overs.

“First and foremost, it was about chasing,” Muzumdar said in an interview in 10 overs. “The second was to keep the net run rate in limits. But the only message was that if we deepen it a bit, we will have a good chance to chase. That was the only message to Harman and Deepti. I think Harman’s presence was very important till the end, that’s what I felt when I was chasing, and I almost finished.”

“I think in terms of preparation, we had everything going on in that camp in Bangalore,” he said. “We had two camps; one was dedicated to training and playing and the other was a skills camp. Because we had eight weeks to prepare.

“So, I couldn’t ask for anything else from the support staff and I couldn’t ask for anything else from the players. They dedicated themselves to those camps. The preparation for this World Cup was perfect. We entered this World Cup. Yes, it’s a little disappointing to lose two games in the league stages.

India’s preparations for the match have been going well – they even managed to practice twice in Sharjah before their first match in the tournament. They have brought back Pooja Vastrakar in the XI after she has fully recovered from a hamstring injury. It meant that S Sajana had to open the way. Muzumdar called this reckless, and they wouldn’t have done anything different in retrospect.

“Look, we went into this project with Pooja who is one of the best skaters in the last 12 months,” explained Muzumdar. “Seeing his record and performance he was one of the best bowlers in the team and we had decided on this XI. This was one of the best XIs we had.

“In these conditions, we wanted to have a sixth bowling option when we played Australia. I think that was one of the best teams to pick. [for the tournament]. If you chose [the squad] before the start of the tournament, I think you would have chosen these 15. So we stuck to it.”

“I think it’s been great working with this lot; this is a very special thing that we work with, and we care about each other, and I think Harman is an important part of this team,” Muzumdar said. “It’s been a great 10 months working with him and everyone else. But yeah, I mean he’s fine. He’s in a lot of pain.

“He hit his head at the start of the tournament, just before the New Zealand game, I think last night we were training. But he’s fine. I think he’s fighting it, and you can see it, but he’s a workhorse. So, I think he’s going about his business [usually]. It’s been an exceptional performance over the past 10 months and I’m looking forward to it [going forward].”