India Vs England, ICC Women's World Cup: Mandhana Takes Blame For Shot Selection After Heartbreaking Loss

India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana took responsibility for the team's heartbreaking four-run loss to England in the Women's World Cup in Indore, admitting her dismissal triggered the batting collapse and that their shot selection "could have been better".

Set a target of 289, India appeared well on course with opener Mandhana (88) stitching two crucial partnerships, 125 with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and 67 with Deepti Sharma, while anchoring the chase.

But her mistimed lofted shot to long-off opened the floodgates, as Richa Ghosh drilled one straight to cover, and then, Deepti miscued a slog as India lost crucial wickets to fall agonisingly short of their target.

"I think everyone's shot selections at that time - we could have done better with our shot selections. Especially it started from me, so I will take it on me, that the shot selection should have been better," Mandhana said at the post-match press conference on Sunday.

"We just needed six (runs) per over. Maybe we should have taken the game deeper. I'll take it on myself because the collapse started from me." The left-hander said emotions got the better of her as she deviated from her own plan of avoiding aerial strokes.

"I thought I could take her on. I was trying to aim more over covers. I mistimed that shot. Maybe the shot wasn't needed at that time. I just needed to be more patient because, throughout the innings, I was trying to tell myself to be patient and not to play aerial shots.

"Maybe the emotions took over for that one, which never helps in cricket. But, walking back, I was pretty confident that we'll be able to get the win, but it's cricket, you can't ever think too ahead."

The collapse was similar to India's performance in the previous game against Australia, where the top-order provided a solid platform, only for the middle and lower order batters to crumble.

However, Mandhana also defended the batting unit, saying finishing is always a difficult task.

"If you see England's innings, they did not finish well as well. Going in and trying to get seven (runs) per over is not an easy thing. So, I wouldn't say that they haven't... and I just feel that in the first two or three matches we definitely finished well.

"Against South Africa we had a last 10 overs we got almost 90 plus runs so they have pretty much done a lot of good things. It's all about how we experienced players can put our hands up in those sort of situations and be there and guide the younger group."

After persisting with a five-bowler combination in their first four games, the team management opted to bring in pacer Renuka Singh in place of batter Jemimah Rodrigues, to strengthen the bowling attack against England.

"In the last two matches for sure we thought that five bowling options are not good enough, especially on a flat track like Indore, or how maybe the Vishakhapatnam second match played.

"We don't, we are not privileged enough to have our batters who could bowl few overs, which a lot of other teams can do. So we thought that five bowling options, especially if one bowler has a bad day, it really costs us a lot.

"It was a very tough call to drop a player like Jemi. But, sometimes, you need to do those sort of things in terms of getting the balance right. But yeah, again, it's not like this is going to be there - we'll have to see how the situation is, how the wicket will play and then we'll take a call."

The defeat was India's third straight in the tournament, leaving their semifinal hopes hanging by a thread. They now need to win their remaining two matches to stay in contention.