Fielding let us down, concedes Harmanpreet Kaur

Newly-appointed captain Harmanpreet Kaur criticised her fielders for letting the team down, after their six-wicket loss to West Indies in the first Twenty20 International at the Dr. Gokaraju Laila Gangaraju ACA Cricket Grounds on Friday (November 18).

"I guess it was an eye opener (for us) today, that we got to know the standard of our fielding," Harmanpreet said after the reigning World T20 champions made short work of the 151-run challenge in the three-match series opener.

Harmanpreet and Veda Krishnamurthy's imposing fifties had helped India reach a safe score of 150 from their allotted overs but visiting captain Stafanie Taylor clobbered her way to a 51-ball 90 that set up West Indies' maiden win on the tour. However, it wasn't a chanceless innings for Taylor. Apart from two dropped chances in the deep, albeit a little tough, the West Indies skipper was also aided by a well spread out field early on that allowed her to pick easy singles that build her confidence.

Harmanpreet stated that the rationale behind the spread out field was to ensure the hosts cut down on the boundaries in the powerplay overs but the ploy didn't produce desired results because poor fielding cost them easy runs in singles. "The plan was to bowl as many dot balls as we could because an opener will always come out with the intention to hit boundaries... that's why the field setting. But we couldn't do either (because) our fielding lacked today. For the next game, we will have to work on how we can cut down the singles as well because once a batsman starts getting singles, the batting looks quite easy," she explained.

"The focus on the next game would be to lift out fielding. Batting and bowling are two aspects of the game where you can't guarantee anything, but when it comes to fielding, you absolutely have to give your 200 hundred per cent. If we can improve our fielding, we can be the side to beat," the skipper added.

Earlier in the day, Harmanpreet had led India's charge to propel the hosts to 150 with an unbeaten 68 - her third T20I fifty and the first of the season. While the skipper looked visibly relived after getting some runs under her belt, she didn't hide the fact that the hosts fell at least 30 short of what they initially thought would be a challenging target to set.

"When Veda (Krishnamurthy) and I were batting, we had a target of about 180 in our mind. But we slowed down a bit after the loss of Veda's wicket, we fell about 30-35 runs short that cost us in the end," the 27-year-old said.

Even as the first fifty took some time coming - the hosts reached 53 exactly at the halfway mark - India had breached the 100-run mark with a ball to spare in the 15th over. However, Krishnamurthy's wicket with the penultimate ball off the 17th over set India back. That India weren't happy with the target they were nearing was apparent when Jhulan Goswami took Chedean Nation on right at the onset of the final over of their innings, and perished off the next ball attempting a repeat of the six. A well-set Harmanpreet ran with all her might to cross over and smacked two more, on either side of the wicket, to finish with exactly 150 on the board.

Given the West Indies' batting prowess, the onus fell on the bowlers and the fielders to get India across the line. "Their batters' strength is very good, they can easily clear the boundaries. So keeping that in mind, I had told (the team) that.. we need to put in more efforts in the fielding and bowl tight. But I am really disappointed that our fielding department let us down," she reiterated.

"There were a couple of players on debut today and few others were playing an international game after six months. I understand that the players feel some pressure but ideally these things shouldn't matter at international level as a professional player," she noted, before adding that her side wouldn't hesitate from putting in extra hours in nets to address their shortcomings.

Meanwhile, Harmanpreet defended the management's decision to bring in legspinner Poonam Yadav in place of the highest wicket-taker in the preceding ODIs Rajeshwari Gayakwad, who isn't a part of the contingent for the T20Is. "Honestly speaking, we were missing Raja's bowling today but when you have two good bowlers, you also need to (have) a third one ready. So, we just gave her a chance to prove herself (because) she did really well in the domestic season. I can't really judge her on the basis of one (bad) match," she concluded.