Surprised that all my bowlers had an off day: Mithali Raj

Goswami picked up three wickets against Sri Lanka but she wasn't her economical best and conceded 63 runs.

The team had made one change by replacing pacer Niranjana Nagrajan with Shubh Lakshmi Sharma, a move that did not work.

"I think everybody knew that the wicket wouldn't help the spinners. What I expected today was that the pacers would do a decent job. The way they started after the first wicket fell, the partnership between one down batter and opener, they played some good strokes," Raj said.

"Niranjana did get few wickets in the last two games but she was expensive as well and we thought we will get a new pacer and she will be raring to go in the form of Shubh Lakshmi," she said.

Sharma went wicket-less in her nine overs and conceded 52 runs.

Raj was also critical of the India's batting effort.

"When you chase a big total, it is very important to have a good start. We lost a quick wicket and as we tried to build a little bit of partnership between me and Thirushkamini, it didn't become big and after me when we lost Harmanpreet Kaur.

"I think the top three batsmen in a span of below 50 runs, that is where I thought the match was going to be tight," she explained.

Asked if India underestimated Sri Lanka, Raj said, "I don't think it was complacency but I had lot of faith in my bowlers. The kind of attack we had, I definitely felt 280 was a little more today.It is disappointing to be out of World Cup as a host team."

India still have a match to play when they take on Pakistan for the seventh and eighth position play off tomorrow.

"Honestly I don't know... It is the seventh and eighth position. It is very disappointing. I really can't comment on that because I am still not in a position to think about that," she said. "As a captain it is disappointing but as player I do realise there is always a fluctuation. It happens in sports that sometimes you are in your best of form, sometimes you really don't take it off. That is part of sport," said the world number one batter, who wasn't in best of forms scoring 1, 8 and 20 in three matches.

... contd.

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