Charlotte Edwards, the Mumbai Indians Head Coach, was at the post-match presser on Tuesday (March 12), after RCB beat MI by seven wickets. She backed her girls to come back stronger in the play-offs, and spoke about the pitch, the impressive young Indian talent, Ellyse Perry’s show, and of course, that special Harman-Thor knock against Gujarat Giants. Excerpts..

Thoughts on how the game went

A frustrating watch because we got off to a good start. We had to have a change in the opening partnership because Yastika (Bhatia) wasn’t well today. Obviously we didn’t capitalize. Disappointing for us. It sometimes happens in T20 cricket. We will learn from tonight. We probably played too many balls across the line. (Ellyse) Perry bowled well tonight, it was an outstanding spell. Maybe if we’d gotten to 140, who knows. We had the chance to put RCB under pressure. We didn’t take our chances, so, look, it wasn’t our best night. We are second in the competition, and we have a massive game come Friday. Our thoughts are firmly now on Friday.

On Ellyse Perry’s superb bowling spell

I’ve seen her bowl a few of these spells to be honest. Some have been against England. Some have been when I’ve been coaching her in the WBBL. Sometimes you just have to say well done to the opposition when they’ve done better than us. It’s a new slate on Friday. That’s what the exciting thing now is. We have to look forward and not behind us.

Reasons for Yastika Bhatia missing out

She wasn’t very well today. We have a bug going through our camp. We have a couple of people at home resting up. She wasn’t well enough to take part today. I thought (Priyanka) Bala did very well today on her debut. One of the positives for us today is her performance.

On Sajana Sajeevan’s performance as an opener

She did brilliantly. We asked her to play exactly the way she plays for us at number seven or eight. She did really well. It was a good partnership between her and Hayley (Matthews). We just didn’t capitalise on it. Some soft dismissals in the middle period, some good bowling, and ultimately, we were a few runs short of putting pressure on RCB.

On the MI middle-order missing the opportunity

That’s what I am most disappointed about tonight. There was some good opportunity for our lower order to show us what they can do. They didn’t take those opportunities, and that is something I will discuss with them. Sometimes they have not been in those situations where they have been lower down, and that is part of the learning process in this tournament for those domestic players. Great learnings for us, but ultimately disappointed that we weren’t able to get that total that could put pressure on RCB.

Reasons for multiple dropped catches through this season

I have no idea, if I did, I’d be very rich (laughs). For a lot of teams, there have been a lot of dropped catches. We haven’t dropped too many, but tonight, two costly ones for us. It is difficult for us to put a finger on it. We will go back to the training ground and put in the hard yards to hopefully make sure those mistakes don’t happen again.

On the young Indian players coming through

That’s what I enjoy most about in this competition, watching those youngsters come through. Watching Shabnam Shakil last night and what an exciting prospect she is. What a lovely girl she is, I met her the other night. Shreyanka Patil, playing for India. There is some wonderful talent India is blessed with. Even Richa Ghosh is only 20. The rest of the world must watch out because this talent is coming though. It will only unearth more in the future, which is very exciting for Indian cricket.

On Elysse Perry, the cricketer

I still stand by what I said five years ago: she is the greatest player I have seen with bat and ball and on the field. She is an unbelievable person as well. We are lucky to have Ellyse in our game as a role model. I have had the opportunity of working with her in the Sydney Sixers. What I admire the most about her is whether she is playing Club cricket, WPL or international cricket, she plays it the same way, which is highly commendable. She had a great day today, hopefully she won’t have such a good day on Friday. We are watching greatness, and she will be around for longer.

On Harman turning around her form after the Australia series

She had a break. She went away and worked with her coach back home. She came into this really refreshed. When we have a refreshed Harmanpreet Kaur, we obviously have an unbelievable player. We were very lucky to be in Derbyshire to watch that innings in 2017. That was in ODI cricket. This was in T20s. That is what we are going to hold on to as a team. In the last couple of games we played, we fought and really played some brilliant cricket. Tonight wasn’t our night. That’s what our team can bring, and hopefully we’ll bring it on Friday.

Thoughts on the way the pitch behaved

I wasn’t surprised they bowled because they were more in control of winning or getting through to the qualifying stage. That’s the reason why they bowled first. I was surprised by the movement (off the pitch). I don’t think we’ve seen that kind of movement off this pitch, something we need to consider, come Friday. But we didn’t play particularly well either. We saw what was happening and we didn’t react as per that. That’s something we will be talking about and hopefully rectifying before we play again.