Led by Harmanpreet Kaur, the Indian women’s team suffered another heartbreak as they lost a nail-biting semi-final against Australia, by only 5 runs, and bowed out of the T20 World Cup 2023.
In the chase of the target of 173, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who has been battling fever for the past 2-3 days, kept India alive with her knock of 52(34) and was involved in two crucial, counter-attacking partnerhips – 69 (41) with Jemimah Rodrigues and 35 (26) with Richa Ghosh – after India had lost their top 3 for only 28 runs and a loss seemed inevitable.
When Kaur and Richa were batting, though, a victory looked completely in reach. However, an unfortunate run-out of the Indian captain – Harmanpreet’s bat got stuck in the ground as she was sliding it, and wicket-keeper Alyssa Healy was sharp in whipping the bails off as Kaur’s foot was in the air – saw India slip.
Losing the well-set Australia slayer and India captain Harmanpreet Kaur in the 15th over was a big dent to India’s hopes, which were all but diminished when Richa got out in the next over. Deepti Sharma was unable to hit any six as India slowly trudged toward a loss, and another knockout.
Harmanpreet Kaur’s run-out was as painful as MS Dhoni’s run-out for the Indian fans
This run-out of Kaur in a crunch situation, in a knock-out game, reminded the fans of MS Dhoni’s run-out by Martin Guptill against New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup semi-final. Indian fans felt a similar dismay and shock to Dhoni’s run-out as they did to Kaur’s as it all but killed any hopes left of an Indian victory.
The ICC social media admin too isn’t immune to such feelings, and was quick in posting both the videos together in one video.
“Run outs that broke a million hearts,” the ICC captioned their post.
Watch:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpA9PkgOjfe/?igshid=NzAzN2Q1NTE%3D
Speaking at the post-match conference, Harmanpreet Kaur said: “Can’t be unluckier than this, to get that momentum back when me and Jemi were batting. And to lose after that, we didn’t expect this today. The way I got runout, can’t be unluckier than that.
“Putting in the effort was more important. We discussed about fighting till the last ball. The result didn’t go our way, but I am happy with the way we played in this tournament. We know we have a good batting line up even if we lose early wickets. Need to give credit to Jemi for the way she batted today. She got us the momentum we were looking for.”
