Exclusive Tour Diary: Mithali Raj (India)

Indian Captain Mithali Raj © AFP

Women's cricket is getting tougher and more competitive. This is very apparent to me after the first few matches of the quadrangular series here in Chennai.

Days when teams used to struggle for runs appear to be long gone. All the teams scored in excess of 200 runs in the opening matches and in one game New Zealand barely managed to beat England after posting 291, a massive score in years gone by, as it ended up winning by just 19 runs. In another match New Zealand successfully chased 261 to beat Australia by six wickets.

Obviously, the playing facilities are excellent but I am pleased to see significant improvement in the standard of women's cricket. There is vigor, zeal and purpose behind the game which is a tremendously positive feature for the future of our sport.

We had the privilege of playing all of our first three matches at the Chepauk, an international arena full of history in the men's game. And trust me, it has been a terrific feeling. The atmosphere of such a venue made us feel special and we were just sucked into that euphoria. The facilities have been nice and on top of that we have seen matches played on outstanding pitches with a lightning-quick outfield and our needs have been superbly met by a dedicated team of people on hand.

I am happy with the cricket we have played in the first three games though we need to make huge strides in certain areas. The best thing that is happening to our team at the moment is that our openers Karu Jain and Jaya Sharma, and also our pace bowlers are firing.

If the opening batsmen get going then you should be able to post decent scores but that is not something that has rung true so far with our inexperience clearly visible in the death overs. As example of that, we scored just 22 runs in the last five overs of our first encounter with England while we failed to bat out our full quota of 50 overs against New Zealand.

In that match against the White Ferns, given the start we made, we should have scored another 30-40 runs. Having said that, I was still pleased we gave New Zealand a run for its money through a spirited opening burst by Jhulan Goswami, who took three early wickets, although it could have been even better had we not dropped a couple of crucial catches.

In a nutshell, we have once again shown the world that we have the talent and potential to challenge the best. But we still need to fine tune those certain areas by making sure we bat through our full allocation of overs, making the most of the final overs with bat and ball and also delivering the killer's blow.

This is a huge learning curve for us but we are glad we have it as it is allowing us many opportunities to hone our skills and get better.

After the first few matches and a couple of days off, all the teams will be playing a back-to-back matches on Wednesday and Thursday but I have no complaints because at this level, there is no room for excuses. We are international cricketers and should perform in whatever format and under whichever conditions we are presented with. That is all part of the challenge and also part of the fun.

So, it is up to us to be ready for the second phase of the tournament with the battle for places in the final hotting up.