Women’s World Cup 2025: Harmanpreet Kaur reveals the key reason behind India’s heartbreaking defeat against Australia

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India’s valiant effort with the bat went in vain as they suffered a three-wicket defeat against Australia in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 at Visakhapatnam. Despite setting a record target of 331, the highest ever posted against Australia in World Cup history, India’s late-innings collapse turned the tide.

The hosts were cruising at 294/4 in the 43rd over, but a sudden flurry of wickets saw them bowled out with seven balls left. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur was candid after the match, admitting that the missed runs in the final overs made all the difference.

Harmanpreet identified India’s failure to capitalize at the death as the turning point of the contest. While Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal set the platform with fluent half-centuries, the middle order couldn’t finish strong. “The way we started, we thought we could have added 30–40 more runs on the board. We kept losing wickets, and that really cost us because today’s pitch was totally different. We knew it was a good batting wicket, but those last six overs where we were not able to capitalize really hurt us.”

She further explained that while India were in control for much of the innings, poor execution in the final phase left them short of what could have been a match-winning score. “The first 40 overs were really good, but in the last 10 we didn’t execute well. In matches like these, you can’t be perfect every time, but it’s important how we come back,” the Indian captain added.

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Despite back-to-back losses in the tournament, Harmanpreet maintained confidence in India’s existing team balance. The setup, featuring five specialist batters, a wicketkeeper-batter, three all-rounders, and two frontline bowlers, has been central to India’s recent success, and the captain sees no reason for drastic changes. “We’ll sit and discuss about using five bowlers, but this combination has given us a lot of success in the past. Two bad games are not going to make a big difference for us.”

Harmanpreet emphasized the need for composure and fine-tuning rather than overreaction. “Going forward, there are a lot of things we need to sort out, and hopefully we’ll come up with the best approach,” Harmanpreet concluded confidently. With upcoming matches against New Zealand, England and Bangladesh, the skipper urged her team to focus on executing their plans under pressure. “We know what we’re capable of, it’s just about finishing games the way we start them.”

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This article was first published at WomenCricket.com, a Cricket Times company.