India captain Mithali Raj believes that losing successive wickets had put in a lot of pressure on her team, from which they could never really recover.
In their second league match of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup at Seddon Park on Thursday, India never looked in the hunt to chase down 261, eventually being all out for 198 in 46.4 overs.
"After the early wickets we got, the way they had a good partnership going. I thought they'd get around 270-280. We thought it was chasable but provided we had the top order going. But back to back wickets put a lot of pressure because we didn't have one of the batters who could take it deep," said Mithali in the post-match presentation ceremony.
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Mithali stated that there were no demons in the conditions while batting second. New Zealand's line and length were so much on the target that India were 50/3 in 20 overs at one point. "There was extra bounce under lights and it got slower in the second innings, their seamers were hitting the right areas with the bounce, but it wasn't unplayable and we could have done better."
With India's next match coming against the West Indies on Saturday, Mithali remarked that the batting has to get better in the tournament with other teams crossing the 250-mark in the tournament. "Our batting, especially the top and middle order needs to fire because other teams are posting 250-260. Our bowlers have done well today and earlier as well. The batting has to step up."
