India’s ace off-spinner Deepti Sharma highlighted positives after the Indian women’s team’s ODI series loss to Australia. She backed the Indian team to end Australia’s winning streak against them soon.

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Australia took an unassailable 2-0 lead against India in the 3-match ODI series being played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Australia clinched a narrow win by three runs in the 2nd ODI on December 30, Saturday. They extended their ODI winning streak against India to nine matches.

Deepti addressed the media ahead of the 3rd ODI and was determined to break Australia’s winning streak as soon as possible.

“Look, winning and losing is a part of the game, but we have improved as a team, be it as a bowling unit or batting. We will try to break their winning streak as soon as possible,” said Deepti.

Deepti talked about India having a close encounter in the 2nd ODI against Australia. She reckoned that the team never came this close to beating Australia in ODIs in the recent past.

“There have been a lot of improvements. Earlier, whenever we would play against Australia the games never used to go that close. This is one positive (from the last match) that we are able to take it till the end,” Deepti added.

Deepti picked up the second five-wicket haul of her ODI career in 2nd ODI as she finished off with match figures of 5 for 38 runs. She became the first Indian woman bowler to claim a five-wicket haul against Australia. Her brilliant spell helped India restrict the visitors to a total of 258. However, India fell short of the target by just 3 runs as Richa Ghosh’s valiant knock of 96 runs went in vain.

Deepti, who remained unbeaten in the end for India, came under scanner for her slow strike rate. The all-rounder scored 24 runs from 36 deliveries. She talked about her bowling performance and also focused on improving her strike rate.

“(If) I have to speak about my bowling, I have trained a lot. I have increased my bowling sessions and have also bowled in different phases such as with the new ball, or in the middle overs, or even how to bowl with the old ball in the death overs,” Deepti said.

“Every team plays to win but some days you are able to pull it off and some days you are not,” Deepti added.

Team India will eye redemption as they face Australia in the 3rd ODI on January 2, Tuesday. The last time India beat the Australian women’s team at home was back in 2007.