• Source:JND
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Indian head coach Amol Muzumdar mentioned the poor fielding display as one of the main reasons for India's defeat in the second ODI match against Australia.

Australia women ended up winning the ODI series against India with a game to go, having defeated the hosts by three runs in the thrilling contest at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Muzumdar said that the Indian team would've had a better chance of winning had they capitalised on the chances on the field.

The Women in Blue dropped as many as six catches that ended up costing them. Phoebe Litchfield got reprieves two times, and she went on to make India play with a knock of 63 off 98 balls with six fours.

 

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Sneh Rana dropped one of the key catches of Ellyse Perry as the star all-rounder went on to score a remarkable century.

Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Deepti Sharma dropped catches in the death overs.

"We're in the process of building it up. There's no doubt that our fielding was below par today. We dropped about six catches. It always happens in a game. Even they dropped a few. But having said that, we still are a work in progress. If we get time post this series, I'm sure we'll try to spend a lot of time on fielding and fitness," Muzumdar was quoted as saying after the match.

While chasing the target of 259, India were restricted to 255 runs for the loss of eight wickets. Deepti Sharma struggled to make it count in the death overs despite being unbeaten on 24 off 36 balls.

However, Muzumdar refused to blame the left-handed batter for the defeat but talked about improvements in certain aspects of the game.

 

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"At the end of the day we can all sit and say 'oh, we missed out by three runs' but there were about 600 balls bowled in that. So we can always go back and talk about it in hindsight. Yes, we fell short by three runs, but I cannot name anyone for the defeat. It's just a collective effort. Probably just one more shot or one more stop in the field could have done the trick,” he added.

The third and final ODI between India and Australia is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, January 2.