India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Sunday said that India did not play to their “standards” and the time has come for a “rethink” after Australia thrashed them out of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in London. The Aussies’ six-wicket win at Lord’s meant that India will not reach the tournament’s semifinals.
“Today we were in the game for quite some time but still I think we didn’t play to our standards and as a group we need to rethink about a lot of things,” Kaur said in the post-match presentation. Kaur, who made a quick fifty, admitted that India did not play well against frontline teams in this tournament.
“I think at the end of the day we got a decent total on the board. At one stage, I thought we were a little short but in the last over I thought I did the job for us. But we didn’t play well. Australia bowled well. Throughout the tournament, we didn’t play well against good teams. We need to improve against good teams,” she again said.
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However, Aussie captain Sophie Molineux applauded veteran batters Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner, who both made fifties, for adding a match-winning stand of 100 runs for the fourth wicket as well.
“Those two batted beautifully. The way those two use their smarts, use their skills and target the short boundary and get the little things going, great to see those two get together and put on a big partnership,” she said. “We just had to hang in there as things changed real quick. Pez (Perry) said 170 is very, very gettable and her actions speak louder than words and she was good to go out there and chase it down with Ash,” she added.
Meanwhile, Player of the Match Ellyse Perry said they were delighted to get the better of a strong side like India.
“It’s been a wonderful day for us. Incredible atmosphere. To do it against India, who we’ve had many battles with, was a really special day. We obviously got to see how India bat and knew it was a good wicket and just needed a good partnership. Ash was superb. Targeted the first two balls of every over and got regular boundaries,” said Perry.
