Mithali Raj on India's failure to pull off a whitewash against England

The ODI series-winning Indian team at the Wankhede Stadium yesterday. Pic/Atul Kamble

Although it was a dead rubber, with India having already pocketed the three-match ODI series, there were a couple of objectives which the women's team needed to achieve in the third match against England. There were two vital points that Mithali Raj & Co would have aimed to fight for which would have significantly boosted their chances to stay in the Top Four to directly qualify for the World Cup.

The other aspect was to break the jinx of losing the final ODI of a series. Both goals remained unfulfilled as yesterday's two-wicket loss to England at Wankhede Stadium was the third time India have suffered a defeat in the final match of a ODI series. The trend of losing the final game started with the South Africa tour last year. It continued against Sri Lanka last September and on to the New Zealand tour as well last month.

Skipper Mithali refused to blame it on complacency. "Only the game against New Zealand was one-sided [India lost by eight wickets]. It was a well-fought match against Sri Lanka which went till the last over, and also in South Africa. But the girls understand that we are trying to get into a set-up which we wouldn't want to. We will work on it so that in the coming series if we are 2-0 up, we make it 3-0," said Mithali.

England's Danielle Wyatt en route her 56 yesterday. Pic/PTI

Despite Katherine Brunt's 5-28, India managed to post 205-8, thanks to half centuries from Smriti Mandhana and Punam Raut. In reply, England recovered after being reduced to 49-5, courtesy Danielle Wyatt's 56 and skipper Heather Knight's 47. After an opening stand of 25 runs, the visitors lost their next four wickets for just 11 runs, as the top order failed to deal with pacer Jhulan Goswami's (3-41) in-swingers. Knight and Wyatt's 69-run stand for the sixth wicket rescued the visitors.

Earlier, India had to bear the brunt of pacer Katherine Brunt (5-28). After opener Jemimah Rodrigues was clean bowled off the second ball of the match, Brunt accounted for India's top two run-getters in the 29th over - a well-set Mandhana (66) failed to pull well and managed to find Wyatt at deep square leg, ending a 129-run second-wicket stand; two balls later, Brunt clean bowled Raut (56). Suddenly, from 129-2, India were reduced to 150-7.

Mithali admitted that the middle order needed attention. "We need to get our middle order sorted because we have talented youngsters. It is just that, for whatever reasons, they are not consistent. I wouldn't say they have not performed, but they have to be consistent and that's something we need to look into," she said.

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