Harmanpreet Kaur: Batting experiment cost us the game

India womenrsquos team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur on Friday blamed their shock loss to Pakistan on rejigged batting order saying the decision to give batters enough game time before next yearrsquos T20 World Cup backfiredIndia suffered only their third loss to archrivals Pakistan when Harmanpreetrsquos side choked for 124 in their modest chase of 138 in the Womenrsquos Asia Cup hereIndia opener Smriti Mandhana during the Asia Cup tie against Pakistan yesterday PicPTIAlso Read India look to continue domination v PakldquoIt was a chaseable target In the middleovers we were not able to take singles and rotate the strike We played too many dot ballsrdquo Harmanpreet said at the postmatch presentationOpener Shafali Verma continued to be rested while Harmanpreet returned to lead the side only to bat way down at No 7 as India continued to experiment in the lead up to the T20 World Cup in South Africa next yearldquoIn the middle we were trying to give other batters a chance You have to do that as the tournament goes on but it backfired and cost us the gamerdquo she saidSabbhineni Meghana continued to open in absence of Shafali as she got out cheaply for 15 India also lost Smriti Mandhana 17 inside the PowerplayInexperience an issueJemimah Rodrigues 2 also fell cheaply as the inexperienced middleorder comprising Dayalan Hemalatha 20 and Pooja Vastrakar 5 failed to steady the shipldquoFor me it is important that whoever is new to the side they should get enough games before the World Cup It was a great opportunity for othersrdquo Harmanpreet who scored a runaball 12 saidIndia last took on their archrivals at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in July where they won by eight wickets en route to winning a silver medallsquoNot taking any team lightlyrsquoldquoWe donrsquot take any team lightly It is part of the game They played good cricket and deserved to win We need to work on areas and be strongrdquo Harmanpreet saidIndia will next face hosts and defending champions Bangladesh here on Saturday Pakistan on the other hand returned to winning ways after a shock reversal against Thailand on Thursday as they are now level with India six on points tallyldquoIt was a very important game for us after yesterday Thursday We executed the things very well We just wanted to take calculated risksrdquo Pakistan skipper Bismah Maroof saidMiddleorder batter Nida Dar struck a 37ball 56 not out to anchor their batting She also chipped in with her offspin to return with 2 for 232016The last time the Pakistan womenrsquos team beat Indiamdash during the T20 World Cup in the CaribbeanAlso Read Womens Asia Cup Pakistan wins toss opts to bat first against IndiaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever