T20 World Cup alarm bells? Harmanpreet Kaur reacts after India's 1-4 loss to South Africa

India women's cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur said the team needs to regroup and find a way forward after losing the T20I series 1-4 to South Africa women's cricket team ahead of the T20 World Cup.

India suffered another poor batting performance in the final match while chasing 156 and fell short by 23 runs, ending the series with a one-sided defeat.

The loss comes just two months before the T20 World Cup in England and will be a setback for the team.

"Need to sit together as a group and think how to move forward. Disappointing for us, lots of positives and learnings for us," Harmanpreet said at the post-match presentation.

India had a poor start in the powerplay, losing Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues inside the first four overs. The team could not recover as South Africa kept taking wickets at regular intervals.

"We did well in patches today. In batting, the powerplay was something which cost us. Didn't get too many runs and lost two wickets. It's disappointing, need to keep working hard."

For South Africa, captain Laura Wolvaardt once again led from the front with an unbeaten 92 off 56 balls. She held the innings together even as wickets kept falling at the other end.

Wolvaardt ended the five-match series with 330 runs and has been in strong form, scoring six fifty-plus scores in her last seven international innings.

"We've had massive improvements in all departments in the last couple of months though. It's been a very good season for that," she said after receiving the player-of-the-series award.

Speaking about the pitch, Wolvaardt said batting was not easy.

"It was a bit of a tough wicket today, but the powerplay was awesome. I liked how aggressive we've been in the powerplay.

"We thought it might be a flat wicket but weren't surprised it was low and slow. Batting first was the right choice. There's always things to look at and improve, the catching being one," she added.