The Indian women’s team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, suffered a 5-run defeat against Australia in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup. Due to the poor fielding of the Indian team in this match, the batsmen of the Australian team scored 172 runs.
In response, the Indian women’s team got off to a poor start with both the openers being dismissed cheaply. In this match, captain Harmanpreet Kaur, along with Jemima Rodrigues, handled the team’s innings and brought India back into the match, but Harmanpreet Kaur was run out after the 15th over. In this episode, former India captain Diana Edulji has given a statement strongly criticizing captain Harmanpreet Kaur.
Where Harmanpreet Kaur handled the team’s innings and contributed significantly in the run chase, but while coming back for the second run in the 15th over, Harmanpreet’s bat got stuck in the ground and Alyssa Healy ran her out without delay.
She said “She is thinking that the bat is stuck, but if you see the second run, it looks like she was jogging. Why are you running leisurely when you know your wicket is so important? Your staying in the game was very important in helping the Indian team win. Look at Perry’s dive to save those two runs. That’s what professional cricket is all about.”
Let us tell you that the runout of Captain Harmanpreet was the biggest turning point of the match. After Harmanpreet’s dismissal, Jemima, Richa, and Deepti all failed to score runs and in the end, the team had to face defeat. Edulji while criticizing Harmanpreet recalled a piece of advice given by former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar.
”You can’t lose every time at the last moment. She was running comfortably on the second run. They thought she would reach easily. We were told by Sunil Gavaskar that on every ball you have to learn to complete the run while keeping your bat on the ground, only then you will get into that habit. His bat was in the wrong left hand. If she had caught it right-handed, she would not have had such a runout.”