When Mumbai Indians Head Coach Charlotte Edwards talks, you listen. She was more than gracious on the night (February 28) after the team went down to the UP Warriorz in the post-match press conference, giving all the credit to Kiran Navgire for her special innings, while also throwing light on the fitness issues in the team, the impact of dew, the under-par on-ground fielding, and of course, “one of her favourite players to watch”, Yastika Bhatia. Excerpts..

On the fitness and availability of Harman and Shabnim

Unfortunately they weren’t available for selection today. Harman (Harmanpreet Kaur) should be back on Saturday. We are just waiting on (Shabnim) Ismail. It shouldn’t be too long, but we don’t want to bring her back too early. I am really confident that Harman will be back against RCB.

A possible reason for multiple dropped catches in the tournament

I think it’s probably the fact that a lot of the players don’t play under lights very regularly, especially the domestic players. From our point of view, we haven’t dropped too many, so I am happy.

On Yastika Bhatia’s aggressive approach

What we asked of her last season was to be aggressive and enjoy her cricket. I couldn’t speak more highly of Yastika. She is an unbelievable talent is going to play for India for years to come. We are seeing glimpses of what she can do. She is one of my favourite players to watch at the moment. Wonderful to see her going out there, take the game on, and I want her to enjoy it. India have gotten a gem there I think moving forward.

Whether dew had a big impact on the game

Potentially, yes. Chasing is a lot easier than setting a target. The wicket looked quite slow when we batted. We did well to get to 160-odd considering that we were 13 in four overs. It quickened up and I thought Kiran Navgire played brilliantly tonight and took the game away from us in that period. We never quite recovered and we have to go away now and think about what we need to do when players get aggressive and hit a lot of sixes. It is a good learning for us.

On countering Kiran Navgire’s approach

I didn’t think Navgire was going to open. The injury gave them the license to put her up the order. We weren’t really planning for her in the batting. Also, Ismail has been so prolific for us in the powerplay. So we did have to tinker things around, and we have to learn that today. I am pleased it happened with us today, because you don’t want it to happen in the latter stages of the tournament. We have got to be better than we were today.

On the approach of the MI openers

We talk to our batters about being aggressive, but they struggled with the pace of the wicket. Yastika going after the bowler in one over got us the impetus. I was pleased with 160 at the halfway stage. We were beaten by a very special innings and we didn’t quite recover from it.

On the team having an off day on the field

It was our worst performance in the field. We were very good until now, and sometimes when you are on the backfoot with the way the opposition played, it happens. It is something I will be speaking to the players about. We still have to have that aggressive mindset even if someone is trying to take the attack to us. Quite a lot of learnings for us as a group, which is good as a coach. We have a couple of days off now, and a massive game on Saturday.