Important to continue momentum: Mithali

Batting first, India suffered a batting collapse before reaching 169 for nine and Mithali praised Sushma Verma and Jhulan Goswami for their lower-order contributions. 

“The advice or suggestion that we gave to the batters was to play till the 40th over but unfortunately again we lost wickets and in the end we had Sushma and Jhulan, those runs were crucial because it got us to 170 and we were looking for that score when we lost the top 4,” Mithali said after the match. 

“When we reached 170, I knew it was just a matter of taking those early breakthroughs because no matter how good a chasing team, there is always pressure of a good start even if you are chasing 150. The wicket did deteriorate later on because the spinners got a lot of turn,” she added. 

Mithali said it would reflect on its batting collapse and come back stronger in the upcoming matches. “It is important to continue the momentum but it is again not everyday that same batters will score runs and I am happy that someone has stood up to get those runs,” she said.