Media365
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur admitted her team did not play to its expected level and said it was time to “rethink” after their six-wicket defeat to Australia knocked them out of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup at Lord’s Cricket Ground on Sunday.The loss meant India failed to qualify for the semi-finals despite posting 170 for four after being asked to bat. “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 during the post-match presentation.Kaur, who scored a half-century, said India managed to put up a competitive total but accepted that the team did not perform well enough against the stronger sides in the 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 said.Australia captain Sophie Molineux praised Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner after the pair added 100 runs for the fourth wicket to guide Australia to victory.“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,” Molineux 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.
