AUS W vs IND W 2026: ‘We made the same mistakes and lost wickets’ – Harmanpreet Kaur reflects on second consecutive loss in Hobart ODI

India Women suffered a massive loss against Australia Women in the second match of the ongoing ODI series at the Bellerive Oval, Hobart, on Friday, February 27. The Australians were able to chase down the 252-run target set by the visitors with 13.5 overs and six wickets to spare, which took them 2-0 up in the three-match assignment. Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur looked in a naturally disappointed mood after the loss.

Harmanpreet indeed played a captain’s knock with her 54 off 70 balls and helped India recover from sudden loss of Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues before the scorecard could touch the three-figure mark. Her intent was clear, but lack of solid support from other end meant that the Women in Blue could not post a daunting total on the board. Harmanpreet wants her batters to do well in the upcoming outing.

“Definitely we didn’t bat well today…we wanted 300 on the board. Again we made the same mistakes and lost wickets, and we were short of a lot of runs. No matter whether batting first or second, we have to bat really well. In the last two games we didn’t bat well, and that’s cost us. Hopefully in the next game we do that,” she said during the post-match presentation.

Harmanpreet’s opposition counterpart, on the other hand, was elated with an unassailable lead in the three-match ODI series. Alyssa Healy, leading the Aussies in her last series, expressed that stemming the flow of runs in the first innings against a strong Indian batting unit was the main reason that they were able to come out on top on Friday. 

“I’m really pumped with that result. Like I said the other night, I was ecstatic with the way that we went about that chase and to do it again tonight, even better, I thought was outstanding, so pretty pleased with that. It was one of those weird ones where I felt like they were well short of a par score [when they didn’t take early wickets], but at the same time it was frustrating for us. It felt like we could have got them out a little bit earlier, but to keep them to 250 on that sort of wicket was an outstanding effort from our group, and we felt pretty well ahead of the halfway mark. We just had to get it done,” Healy shared.

With the Aussies already 2-0 up in the series, the third and final match of the ODI leg essentially becomes a dead rubber, but the Indians will be hoping to end the series with a consolatory win. The upcoming match will be played on Sunday, March 1, in Hobart, before the action moves on to the red-ball format.