“We can’t be unluckier than this,” Harmanpreet said at the presentation. “The way we got the momentum back when Jemi and I were batting… and after that losing this game, we were not expecting this today.
“The way I got run-out… can’t be unluckier than that. Putting the effort was more important and I am happy we took this game till the last ball. That is what we discussed in the team meeting, that we want to fight till the last ball. The result was not in our favour but I am happy with the way we played in this tournament.”
India won two of their three games in the T20 World Cup chasing and Harmanpreet was happy despite losing the toss on Thursday, when Australia opted to bat. India kept Australia under check despite a 50-run opening stand between Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney, although Mooney, Meg Lanning and Ashleigh Gardner powered them to 172 for 5 by amassing 73 runs off the last six overs.
“We love to chase and today also we were thinking of chasing only,” Harmanpreet said. “When Australia took batting, we know whatever we were expecting, it is happening the way we want. Even after losing first two wickets we know we have a good batting line-up and have few players who back themselves.
“Specially, I should give credit to Jemimah, the way she batted today. She was the one who gave us the momentum we were looking for. Happy to see some good performances we saw this tournament.”
India’s fielding in the semi-final left a lot to be desired. Lanning and Mooney were dropped once each while there were a lot of misfields, too. Harmanpreet conceded that those cost them.
“We again gave some easy catches away,” she said. “When we have to win, we have to take those chances especially, which is 100% in your hands. We did misfield today. We can only learn from these areas and whenever we come next time we should learn from this and should not make these mistakes next time.
“We fought in this tournament and we played some really good cricket. Even though we didn’t play according to our strengths, still we were able to make the semi. Today we wanted to play our natural game and a few of us did that. Happy to see that.”
Source: ESPN Crickinfo