IND-W v AUS-W: Dropped catches are part of game, says Harmanpreet after India drop a few on way to defeat

Mumbai, Dec 30 (IANS) India Women's team captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Saturday said that dropped catches were part and parcel of the game and that her players need a bit more awareness late in the chase as they went down to Australia Women by three runs at the Wankhede Stadium here.

After fighting back to restrict a strong Australian batting line-up to 258/8 in 50 overs with Phoebe Litchfield (63) and Ellyse Perry (50). Deepti Sharma claimed 5-38 in 10 overs but what impacted the Indians was the catches they dropped in field.

Though the Aussies fielders also dropped three catches, they excelled in ground fielding and bowled superbly to restrict India Women to 255/8 in 50 overs to suffer a narrow defeat and lose the three-match series 2-0.

Though Harmanpreet Kaur said her team did well to restrict Australia to below 300, she said there were lots of positives for them in the match despite the dropped catches.

"Dropped catches are part of the game. We are playing under a lot of heat and back-to-back, it's part of the game. It's always important how we bounce back. We keep letting the bowlers know they're doing a great job and that we're trying our best to support them,"| said Harmanpreet Kaur after the match.

"We bowled really well. We knew we had to keep looking for wickets. Lots of positives. I know they took the game away. I'm proud of the team, and the way we played. We needed a bit more awareness late in the chase," said Harmanpreet.

The India captain also praised young batter Richa Ghosh, who struck a 117-ball 96 while Jemimah Rodrigues scored 44 as India fell short of the target.

"Richa played really well, Jemimah helped her in the middle. We know Australia have a long batting line-up. Stopping them under 300 was a positive. We knew we could've chased it but didn't show enough awareness in the middle overs," she said.