Amol Muzumdar reflects on India’s loss to Australia that sees India’s hopes of making the semis hanging by a thread.
Amol Muzumdar put India’s 9-run loss against Australia down to the experience gap between the two sides.
The India head coach wasn’t going to dump his team despite their dismal nine-run loss to Australia, which destroyed their aspirations of making the semi-finals. All he could hope for was that they would “learn from the experience and disappointment.”
India’s performance on the pitch was poor as they gave up “10-15 more”. They also got themselves into a situation where they were once again depending on a miracle from Harmanpreet Kaur to save them. With two losses in four games, the captain was clearly frustrated and exhausted despite being undefeated at 54 off 47.
“I think we were in the game right till the last over, just that experience of Australia saw them through,” Muzumdar said after the game. “A little disappointed with the loss. I feel we’ve fielded pretty well. A couple of chances could’ve been taken and things could’ve been different.”
India failed to make a run-out opportunity, missed a stumping, and dropped three catches. Phoebe Litchfield’s close LBW call went Australia’s way as well.
Although Muzumdar refrained from criticising the Litchfield choice, he did not mince words when he stated that “it was a crucial one.” At the halfway point of their chase, when India required 85 with Harmanpreet and Deepti at the crease, he also provided a glimpse into the team’s thoughts.
“First and foremost, it was about the run-chase,” Muzumdar revealed of the chat at the 10-over mark. “Second was keeping the net run rate also in bounds. But the only message was if we take it a little deeper, then we do have a good chance to chase. That was the only message to Harman and Deepti. I think Harman’s presence was very important till the end. That is what I felt in the run chase, and almost got it through.”