Sipu Jha
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur admitted on Friday that batting let the team down in the first two ODIs against Australia, leading to back-to-back defeats in their first 50-over series since winning the World Cup last November.India had earlier won the T20I series 2-1 but have now lost the first two ODIs, with one match left on Sunday. The teams are contesting an all-format series that will also include a one-off Test.In the second ODI, India chose to bat and scored 251/9, with half-centuries from Harmanpreet (54) and Pratika Rawal (52). However, dropped catches hurt their chances as Australia chased down the target by five wickets with 13.5 overs remaining.“Well, definitely we didn’t bat well today because as a group we decided that let’s bat first and put a 300-plus total on the board because today’s pitch was far better than the previous one,” Harmanpreet told the broadcaster after the match.“But unfortunately, we again made the same mistakes and we kept losing wickets in between, and that’s why we were short of lots of runs.”“No matter whether we bat first or second, we have to bat really well because whenever we bat well, we’re always in a good situation. In the last two games we didn’t bat well, and that really cost us. It’s only about batting well and batting deep, and hopefully in the next game we’ll do that,” Harmanpreet added.Australia captain Alyssa Healy, who will play her final match on Sunday before retiring, said she was satisfied with the result.“I’m really pumped with that result. Like I said the other night, I was ecstatic with the way that we went about that chase and to do it again tonight even better, I thought, was outstanding. Pretty pleased with that,” Healy said.“It was one of those weird ones where I felt like they were well short of a par score, but at the same time it was frustrating for us. I felt like we could have got them out a little bit earlier. But to keep them to 250 on that sort of wicket was just an outstanding effort from our group.”Healy described Georgia Voll (101) and Phoebe Litchfield (80), both 22, as key players for the future.“Sometimes I’ve just got to get out of the way and let the young kids do their thing. That’s the future, right? That’s the future of this Australian cricket team moving forward in that top order,” said Healy.“To see them go about their business tonight, especially Phoebe, the way she took it on early and got herself set and gave us a real opportunity, was outstanding. Kudos to them both,” she added.Voll credited Litchfield for easing the pressure during their 119-run partnership for the second wicket.“Phoebe was outstanding at the other end, made my job super easy. (I was) just out there having a lot of fun batting with her.“Any chance you get to bat for Australia, you try and take it with both hands. So I’m just sort of trying to take any opportunity I can get and do the best job I can,” Voll added.
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