Indian women’s cricket team has suffered a heartbreaking loss on Sunday against South Africa in their final league game and they failed to seal their semi-final berth in the 2022 World Cup tournament as well. And following the exit, former India men’s team captain Virat Kohli shared a heartfelt note for the Mithali Raj-led side.

India’s fate was denied by an inch as Deepti Sharma bowled a no ball, of which she had dismissed the key batter, in the final over of the game. The delivery was denied and also the wicket and South Africa held their nerves in their final moments to win the game and complete their highest successful chase in ODIs, 275 at Christchurch after a middle-order collapse as well.

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A day after the heartbreaking exit, Virat Kohli took to Twitter to praise the Indian women’s team, saying, “Always tough to bow out of a tournament you aim to win but our women’s team can hold their heads high. You gave it your all and we are proud of you.”

Always tough to bow out of a tournament you aim to win but our women's team can hold their heads high. You gave it your all and we are proud of you. 🙏🏻🇮🇳

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) March 28, 2022

Meanwhile, India captain Mithali Raj, who played her probable final World Cup game on Sunday, opined on their failure to inconsistent show at the tournament where they scored their highest total – 317 for 8 against West Indies – and were bundled out for as low as 134 against England, and failed to win in two nail-biters against Australia and South Africa as well.

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“There’ve been ups and downs,” Mithali Raj said in summation at her final press conference of the event. “We did well against West Indies but we lost against England, Australia and even New Zealand. We didn’t really put up a fight in those two games (England and New Zealand). Overall, we could have done better in the initial phase of the tournament.”