On Saturday, there was no charade of "each game is equally important".

Amol Muzumdar, the Indian head coach, made a blunt confession. "We knew it as soon as the schedule came out that this was going to be the crunch game."

Not the toughest game, but the game that would have most likely decided India's passage to the semifinal. And on the big day, the team came short in all aspects. The batters couldn't forge partnerships, their best fielder dropped catches, the bowlers kept getting defensive as the onslaught started, and field placements didn't quite keep up with the areas batters were targeting.

Not surprisingly, the head coach turned up to justify the performance, coming up in defense of his players.

The bowling?

"You have to take into consideration that the entire bowling attack apart from Deepti is very (inexperienced). Give them some time in international cricket. Somebody like Charani, very new to international cricket. Prema Rawat playing her first game. Even when Shreyanka was there, she is very new to international cricket. (So is) Kranti Gaud, and so is Nandni Sharma. Apart from Deepti, we do have a lot of inexperience in the bowling lineup. Give them some time, give them 24 months, and I'm sure they'll come up (better)."

The two dropped catches by Radha Yadav?

"Radha has been an exceptional fielder, I think world-class fielder, and those two catches were (there)... but things happen on a cricket field. Sometimes things go right, sometimes, things go wrong. Unfortunately, Radha was on the other side this time, but I'm sure, she's a strong character, and I'm sure somewhere in this tournament she'll make up for it."

The line of defense continued for more players, but to sum it up, Muzumdar passed the credit to South Africa for playing better cricket, and Marizanne Kapp for her batting. "You need to give credit where it deserves," he stated in conclusion

While it's a fair compliment to the opposition, and quite unlike the words that might be uttered in the dressing room, the concerns in the line-up are hard to overlook - most significantly, the middle-order woes.

India's two big-margin wins in the first two games of the World Cup papered over the cracks in the middle order. The trio of Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues and Bharti Fulmali/Yastika Bhatia have contributed only 123 runs across three games, coming at a strike rate of only 102.5, leaving too much dependency on the openers and Richa Ghosh.

The bigger issue is the inability of the experienced duo of Harmanpreet and Rodrigues to provide stability, push and direction to the innings. They were required to shepherd the middle overs. Instead, their struggles sucked the momentum out of quick starts, and invariably put Ghosh under too much pressure at the death.

It remains uncertain whether there is a lack of clarity in the middle-order roles, but in each of the three games, India have tested out different batting positions for its middle-order batters. A day ahead of the South Africa game, bowling coach Aavishkar Salvi spoke about the team wanting to be flexible, just in case, that's a rationale, even if it hasn't worked out successfully so far.

At least for now, on a public front, Amol has come to defend the middle order as well. "Every day you won't have... there will be stages in T20 cricket where you will have - because of the high-risk factor - a lot of wickets falling. And we have been playing a brand of cricket, a fearless brand of cricket, which we have emphasised on. So I guess there will be some days where we will have those wickets falling in a cluster. But I guess that's the way the nature of the game is. It's not much of a concern."

Even if you were to cut through the fluff, this loss may not be the worst thing to happen to India's campaign. As Harmanpreet Kaur had confessed ahead of the World Cup, losses help identify problems that victories tend to hide. There is still time to iron out the flaws.

For as crucial as this game against South Africa was, it's not the end of the tournament. "Of course, it was a big game, there's no doubt about it. But we still have two more games to look forward to. And, there is no doubt in my mind that if we play to our potential, we can be on the right side of those two games," Muzumdar said.

And, fair enough: inspiration isn't hard to find either; it sits inside the dressing room, brimming with recent experience. Mid-tournament struggles, key losses, must win game: the solution for a way out resides within the team, among most of the same group. But to turn it around, contributions from the middle order, especially Harmanpreet and Rodrigues, will be of utmost importance.

The challenge against Australia might seem stiff, but in the quest for world glory, there is no escaping. The only thing that changes now is the "crunch game".