1. It wasn't the best time to be India's captain when Harmanpreet Kaur walked out to address the press after India's second successive defeat in the ongoing T20I tri-series in Mumbai.
2. After India posted the second-highest score in T20I history, England made a mockery of it, courtesy Danielle Wyatt's 64-ball 124 carnage. The now one-month home season has gone by without a victory, in fact there have been none since the final run to the world Cup last year for India. More importantly, it has all happened not only because of the might of the opposition, but also due to below-par performances by the hosts.
3. And the fact that they will be up against Australia, an opposition that has clinically outdone them all through this period, in less than 24 hours, serves as little consolation.
4. Amidst all this, Harmanpreet searches for solace. And in only 'we're improving' can she find some. "At least as a batting unit, we are showing that (improvement). If you see, in the first innings, the wicket was not that easy to bat on. But the way Mithali di (Mithali Raj) and Smriti (Mandhana) batted, it was outstanding.
5. "In the last game, when we got a good start, after that our lower order did not get what we expected from them. So today, when I went for batting, I was looking for runs and whoever was batting with me, I was telling them we have to rotate the strike and we cannot (just) depend on the opening partnership, we have to get lot of runs as much as we can and we got it done."
6. Even as the Indian skipper was happy with how the batters went on after losing the openers Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandhana in quick succession, she possibly missed what could have been the game-turning point.
7. At the 12.3 over-mark, only nine runs separated India and England, despite Wyatt's belligerent batting at the start. But for 25 balls from Mandhana's dismissal, India not only lost two more wickets (Mithali and Veda Krishnamurthy) but also failed to score a boundary. The scoring rate dropped from 10.1 to 9. It is during this period, that England despite losing two wickets, increased the gulf by 15 more runs. For a second game in a row, the failure to keep the momentum going after good starts by the openers has come back to pinch India.
8. However, Harmanpreet overlooked that bit by stating that she and Pooja Vastrakar's late onslaught had powered them to a massive score. "Today we worked on that, when we lost Smriti and Mithali di's wicket, we did not slow down the game, we kept hitting the ball. And when we needed boundaries we were getting them, and that is the reason we scored 198."
9. That might have been a massive target, but captains of all the three teams had admitted that given the conditions, that was not exactly a winning total. While it is a graveyard for bowlers, especially in the second innings, Harmanpreet believed that her bowlers were not upto the mark and the batting-friendly conditions cannot be an excuse for that.
10. "Even if the wicket is good, we need that much guts to bat or bowl on it. We just cannot depend on the wicket, we always need that effort to do something on the ground.
11. "In the bowling department we are not improving, we need to improve and we will definitely improve... If you see, everyday one or the other bowler is good. Dipti Sharma bowled well (today). Poonam Yadav bowled well in the tournament, she did not bowl well. It's part of the game, sometimes it's up and down, I have confidence in my team and we won't give it easy to anyone.