India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Friday admitted that the batting let down the team in the first two ODIs against Australia, leading to their first consecutive 50-over series defeat since winning the World Cup last November.India had earlier won the T20 series 2-1 but has now lost the first two ODIs, with one match left on Sunday. The teams are taking part in the all-format series which will also include a one-off Test.
In the second ODI, India chose to bat and scored 251/9 with the help of half-centuries from Harmanpreet (54) and Pratika Rawal (52). However, a dropped catch spoiled his chances as Australia reached the target by five wickets with 13.5 overs remaining.“Well, definitely we didn’t bat well today because as a group we decided to bat first and get 300-plus on the board because today’s pitch was much better than the last one,” Harmanpreet told the broadcaster after the match.“But unfortunately, we made the same mistakes again and we kept losing wickets in between, and that’s why we missed out on a lot of runs.”“It doesn’t matter whether we bat first or second, we have to bat really well because whenever we bat well, we are always in a good position. In the last two games we did not bat well and it cost us. It is just about batting well and batting deep and hopefully we will do that in the next game,” Harmanpreet said.Australia captain Alyssa Healy, who will play her last match on Sunday before retiring, said she was satisfied with the result.“I’m really excited by that result. As I said the other night, I was very pleased with the way we chased that goal and to do it even better again tonight, I thought, was excellent. “I’m very pleased with it,” Healy said.“It was one of those weird ones where I thought they were well behind the par score, but at the same time it was disappointing for us. I thought we could have got them out a little bit earlier. But to restrict them to 250 on a wicket like that was an excellent effort from our group.”Healy named 22-year-old Georgia Woll (101) and Phoebe Litchfield (80) as key players for the future.“Sometimes I have to step out of the way and let the little kids do their thing. This is the future, right? This is the future of this Australian cricket team moving forward at the top of the order,” Healy said.He said, “To see them do their thing tonight, especially Phoebe, the way she started it early and composed herself and gave us a real chance was excellent. Congratulations to both of them.”Voll credited Litchfield for relieving the pressure during the 119-run partnership for the second wicket.“Phoebe was excellent at the other end, she made my job a lot easier. (I) really enjoyed batting with her.“Any chance you get to bat for Australia, you try to take it with both hands. So I’m just trying to take advantage of every opportunity I get and do my best,” Woll said.