Coach rues missed chances after India knocked out

A disheartened India head coach Amol Muzumdar rued the missed opportunities that could have altered the game’s outcome after his team’s hopes of reaching the women’s T20 World Cup semifinals were dashed by a loss to Australia.

In a bid to control their own destiny, the Indian team delivered a lackluster performance on the field, ultimately resulting in a nine-run loss to defending champions Australia in their must-win game on Sunday.

“I think we were right in the game, right till the last over. Just that experience of Australia saw them through,” Muzumdar said. “Just a little disappointing with the loss. And I feel we’ve fielded pretty well. But yeah, a couple of chances could have been, we could have taken those chances and then the things could have been different. Maybe 10-15 runs less, even the last over. But at the same time, I would like to say that we put in our best effort forward in this game,” he added.

India dropped as many as three catches, while also missing a stumping opportunity. To add to their woes, a close lbw call also went against them.

Australia posted a total of 151/8. In response, India fell short, finishing at 142/9 despite skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s unbeaten 54. With senior players Harmanpreet and Deepti Sharma in the middle, India needed 85 off 10 overs. Asked what message was being sent to the duo in the middle at the time, Muzumdar said: “First and foremost, it was about the run chase. Second was keeping the net run rate also into account. But the only message was if we take it a little deeper, then we do have a good chance to chase these runs down. I think Harman’s presence was very important till the end. We almost got it through.”