London, July 24 : Praising the England players for winning their fourth World Cup title, India skipper Mithali Raj rued that the inexperience of her teammates and their ibility to hold their nerves during the crucial moments proved to be the difference between the two teams in the fil.
India suffered a spectacular middle and lower order batting collapse to lose by nine runs to England in a il-biting fil of the ICC Women’s World Cup at the Lords cricket ground here on Sunday.
“It wasn’t easy for England but credit to them for holding their nerve. There was as time when the match was in the balance and could have gone either way. But that was the situation when we panicked and they came out victorious. England did well in those crunch moments which turned the game,” Mithali said at the post match presentation.
Mithali however, praised the Indian players for their performance and blamed inexperience for their ibility to win the maiden women’s World Cup for India. She also picked out veteran pacer veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami for special praise for her performance throughout the tourment.
Jhulan bowled well in the fil, picking up three crucial wickets while conceeding just 23 runs in her 10 overs.
“I want to tell my girls that I am very proud of them, the way made a comeback into the tourment. They didn’t make any match easy for any of the other teams. I would also like to thank the crowds for coming up in large numbers to support women’s cricket,” she said.
“Jhulan is an experienced bowler and has always delivered when the team required and give her best performance. Her bowling spell could have turned into a match winning one but I knew England had a lot of depth in their batting.” IANS