We saw a brave fightback when the backs were right to the wall, with Amelia Kerr’s unbeaten 28-ball 49 leading the counter-attack. But Mumbai Indians couldn’t quite get the W they were after to end the Navi Mumbai leg. As the action now moves to Vadodara, she was at the post-match press conference, looking forward to getting the winning momentum in place. Excerpts..

Thoughts on the match

I think they looked like getting a big score. We did well to pull it back in the end. I think we were three down early and then tried to rebuild a partnership, but then kept losing continuous wickets. I think winning the powerplay was really important in this competition and it is something we have struggled to do so far. Good that we could take the game deep but we are not that far off. Winning those little moments and we have a chance there. 

On the powerplay issues

Our bowling unit has been really good. Dropping a few catches never helps. Also up front with the bat, you see teams get off to fliers with the bat and if we can be none down or one down with the bat in the powerplay with fifty runs, it could work nicely in the middle phase of the game.

On her batting performance

I haven’t batted in the last couple of games as I needed to. Nice to contribute with the bat today. New conditions for the next three games for us. We’ll get there, take a bit of time off and have a bit of training and get used to it. I’m sure it’s a pretty good wicket there also.

On Harmanpreet Kaur’s captaincy

She’s been amazing. She is a great leader. She has been leading Mumbai well for the last three years and is doing the same this year. She has great respect from the players and staff.

Thoughts on the pitch

Under lights here if you bat second with the dew the ball skids on a bit more. It was still a good wicket with a fast outfield. But the spinners could bowl slower and get a little bit of turn. Potentially that was what made it hard in the middle phase to rotate.

On the dropped catches

Today we obviously dropped a few catches and that never helps. But it is sport, people make mistakes. You are looking for a complete performance, that’s how you win games. You can’t drop your standards. With those dropped catches you end up leaking a few runs. Everyone is working hard and you just have to come back and be positive because we’ve got another game not too far away.

Thoughts on the campaign so far

It’s been a little bit up and down. A couple of losses and a couple of wins as well. That’s cricket. In the games we lost, we didn’t play at our best. So we are not giving ourselves the best chance. A few players have been missing out. We’ve had injuries, we’ve had illnesses. I guess that makes it a little bit difficult with things outside our control. The ability of the group to just get on with things. Hopefully we can get a consistent group playing together and get our combinations right.