Indian women cricket team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur on Sunday said that loss against England at the final of 2017 Women's ODI World Cup at Lord's -- that India had lost by just 9 runs -- was more disappointing than today's defeat in Women T20 World Cup final.
"The 2017 loss was more disappointing because that was so close but today what we were expecting ourselves, we did not play that cricket. But as our team is quite young and we did really well in the league games. In the last T20 World Cup we reached semi-finals and this year we made it to the final. I think if we keep working and improving, then in the future we can win," Harmanpreet told post-match press conference.
On International Women's Day, Australia women displayed an all-round performance to defeat India by 85 runs to win their fifth title at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Indian team displayed poor fielding skills and drops crucial catches of Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney.
Harmanpreet said that team dropped catches of Healy and Mooney which proved to be crucial as they went on to score big innings.
"When you lose half chances and then it's hard for a bowlers to get that confidence back and then easy for batters because then they get chance and then they are batting freely, they don't have any pressure but I don't think we were fielding under any pressure but unfortunately we were not able to create those chances because that was very crucial because They both were in great form and you cannot drop their catches," she said
Halley played an innings of 75 runs off 39 balls while Mooney remained unbeaten on 78 runs.
Harmanpreet said that Halley and Mooney played aggressive cricket and credit should be given to them.
"When you give chances to batter who is in the great form then its really difficult for bowlers to come back and we were trying our best but we should get credit to them because they played great cricket today,"
Harmanpreet said that Indian women cricketers need more domestic tournaments to develop an atmosphere of competitive cricket in the country.
" We do need a domestic tournament where you can play high-quality cricket because there is a huge gap between domestic cricket and international cricket. Only one or two players like Shafali and Richa can directly come to international and play, not all players can do the same. If we want to build a strong team for the upcoming high-quality matches then we need a tournament where good quality of cricket is played," she added.
After opting to bat first in the decider, Australia posted a target of 184 runs in the allotted twenty overs.
During India's chase, Megan Schutt and Jess Jonassen picked four and three wickets respectively to bundle out India on 99 runs.
Before this edition, Australia had won the tournament in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2018.
Also, the final of the tournament between India and Australia witnessed the highest attendance for a women's cricket match globally. 86,174 people attended the ICC Women's T20 World Cup final at MCG.
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