Amol Muzumdar (Twitter)
Australia defeated India by nine runs in the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup. The onus was once again on captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who remained unbeaten on 54 runs but couldn’t take the team home. Deepti Sharma supported her for a brief while and India was in a very good spot at one point but in the end, they lost a few quick wickets, leading to another defeat in a must-win game. India is currently on the verge of elimination as their fate depends on the game between Pakistan and New Zealand on October 14.
India’s head coach, Amol Muzumdar, noted after the game that his side was in the hunt until the last over, but Australia, with its experience, capitalized well. He also appreciated India’s fielding despite the team dropping three catches in a high-voltage game. A stumping and a run-out opportunity were also missed. However, Muzumdar was happy with the overall effort and also believes that the game would have gone in their favor had those chances been taken.
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“I think we were in the game right till the last over, just that experience of Australia saw them through. A little disappointed with the loss. I feel we’ve fielded pretty well. A couple of chances could’ve been taken and things could’ve been different,” Muzumdar was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
The only message was if we take it a little deeper: Muzumdar
Muzumdar revealed that at the halfway mark of the chase, he advised the players to take the game deep, which would put them in a good spot to win the game. He noted that Harmanpreet’s presence was important till the end and that kept India in the fight and added that the goal was also to keep the NRR in mind.
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“First and foremost, it was about the run-chase. The second was keeping the net run rate also in bounds. But the only message was if we take it a little deeper, then we do 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 is what I felt in the run chase, and almost got it through,” Muzumdar revealed.