'Bowlers Did Their Job But Fielding Didn't Work': Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur after India's Loss to Australia

India women’s team captain Harmanpreet Kaur expressed her unhappiness with the fielding effort and asked her players to play aggressive cricket following the home team’s crushing six-wicket loss to Australia in the first one-dayer here on Thursday.

Despite India putting up their best-ever ODI score of 282/8 against Australia, the visitors chased down the target in the 47th over with opener Phoebe Litchfield (78) and Ellyse Perry (75) involved in a 148-run partnership.

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A sloppy Indian fielding allowed Phoebe, Ellyse, Tahlia McGrath (68 off 55 balls) and Beth Mooney (42) to score runs at will to overhaul the target with ease.

“We managed to get a defendable total. Bowlers did their job but fielding didn’t work well. After a while dew was there, but bowlers did well to keep stumps in play,” said Harmanpreet after the match.

“But I was unhappy with our fielding, Australia were amazing saving runs. Pooja was great. We need to back ourselves and play aggressive cricket,” she added.

Australia skipper Alyssa Healy, who could not contribute with the bat at the top of the order after going for a duck, said the batters quickly overcame the early loss and this was the “blueprint” the team was aiming for.

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“Batting approach was sensational, that was the blueprint we want to put out there. Our batters play down the ground really well, helps when the ball is skidding on a little bit. Girls bounced back and showed how we wanted to play,” said Alyssa.

Ellyse said her team-mates knew a tough contest was expected from India and the need of the hour was to “raise the bar”.

India had defeated Australia by eight wickets in the one-off Test at this venue a few days back.

“We’ve been pushed by India, so we got to raise the bar. I thought 280 was around, had a good effort in the field and bowled well for a large part. With the lights coming on and ball coming on, the bowlers had a low margin for error with the field restrictions. We started positively and capitalised.

“We never let the grip loose which was pleasing. Our energy in the field matched with the bowling.”