Indian all-rounder Deepti Sharma has refrained from blaming the pitch for their shoddy batting performance, saying the wicket was not as challenging as they made it appear to be during the second women's T20I against England in Mumbai. (As It Happened | Report | Cricket News)
The hosts, who lost the opening T20I by 38 runs, were shot out for a mere 80 in 16.2 overs on Saturday night.
India went on to lose the game as well as the series here at the Wankhede Stadium, though they did put up an inspirational show with the ball, taking six wickets during England's chase of a paltry 81-run target.
"The pitch was not as challenging that only 70 or 80 runs would be possible. A few more runs could have been scored to get to a total of around 110-115," Sharma told media after the match.
"But there are such days when conditions do not favour you . As a team, we try to do well but anyone can have an off day. We did not feel, that since we could not do well in the first innings, we will not be able to make any impact whatsoever in the second.
"Had we built partnerships in between, the score would have been a lot different but we will learn from this going into the match tomorrow (on Sunday)."
The 26-year-old praised the bowlers for showing a strong fight despite having not enough runs on board.
"Whatever happened in the first innings, we wanted to do better in the second innings as a bowling unit,” she said.
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"We wanted to take the game as deep as possible and the bowlers did a good job with that. The bowlers did well since the opposition lost six wickets. It is not easy for the batters and the bowlers deserve credit for pulling things back.
"We have played such matches in the past as well. We wanted to maintain a positive approach and keep close-in fielders as much as possible, that we would back each other up and not give up that easily."
Deepti, however, said the surface as a bit "tricky".
"The wicket could also be a factor since both the matches panned out differently," Deepti said.
"The wicket for the first match was better given that the ball was coming onto the bat nicely and it was easier to bat compared to today, when the pitch was a little tricky for the batters and the ball was also skidding a bit."
No real demon in the pitch: England's Charlie Dean
England off-spinner Charlie Dean, who returned with figures of 4-0-16-2 to be named the Player of the Match, said there were no "demons" in it.
"There were quite a lot of wickets today in the game. I would not have any complaints on the pitch myself," she said.
"Of course I would not, I am a bowler. I did not get a chance to have a bat out there but that is good. A lot of our guys were saying it was skidding on a bit but no real demons in the pitch."
Dean acknowledged that even the England camp was a bit jittery given they lost wickets in quick succession.
"I guess (it is) just (due to) pressures and weaknesses in certain areas. All around, the bowlers had a really good day. We executed our plans well, so did India, they set really aggressive fields and they had to because of the way the game was dictated," Dean said.
"It played really well into the hands, taking away boundaries and putting extra catchers in place paid off on that kind of a wicket."
