India’s Twenty20 captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Friday was defiant despite crashing to a series defeat against New Zealand but insisted that her team learnt a lot of lessons on the tour.
New Zealand beat India by four wickets in the second T20I to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. The third match on Sunday in Hamilton has now been rendered inconsequential.
“No doubt, New Zealand played better cricket than us and so they won,” Harmanpreet said after the match. “But I am not disappointed that we lost the series. We are here to play good cricket and we did that. We played really well, especially the bowlers.”
“We were defending 130-odd and it was difficult for the bowlers. They bowled really well and took the match to the last over. Overall, we played good cricket.”
She said it was a learning curve for a lot of players in the team. “We did not win the series but more than winning and losing, we learnt a lot. We have a very young squad, there are very few players who have played more than 30 matches. Most of the players have played less than 10 T20I matches. It is a good learning process for us,” said the 29-year-old.
“We are building a team. Today, we may be facing difficulties but in future we will do well as the young players gain experience. I think the future is good for the team and results will follow.”
India women won the ODI series 2-1 but Harmanpreet said T20 exposed her team’s flaws. “It [T20] is a totally different format. In ODIs, you can come back even if you do make a mistake. But in T20, you have very less time to think about that. You have to be always on your toes,” she said.
“But as I said we are a young side and we are not disappointed [by the loss]. We have learnt a lot from this series.”