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Cricket Players‘Could’ve won an over earlier': Emotional Harmanpreet Kaur reacts on heartbreaking run-out that lost India WC semi-final
Reflecting on India's heartbreaking defeat at the hands of Australia, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur became visibly emotional in the post-match presentation. Harmanpreet played a sublime knock of 52 off 34 balls in the first semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2023 at Cape Town.
An emotional Harmanpreet Kaur had to fight back tears during the post-match presentation after Australia edged past India in the first semi-final of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup at Cape Town on Thursday. Meg Lanning's Australia entered its seventh straight Women's T20 World Cup final by defeating India by 5 runs in the first semi-final at Newlands. Australia will face either England or hosts South Africa in the summit clash of the showpiece event.
Reflecting on India's heartbreaking defeat at the hands of Australia, Harmanpreet became visibly emotional in the post-match presentation. Harmanpreet, who staged India's fightback with power-hitter Jemimah Rodrigues, was run-out in a bizarre fashion which eventually turned the tie on its head at Cape Town. Playing a captain's knock for India, Harmanpreet top-scored for the Women In Blue although her batting heroics went in vain.
“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 run-out, 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,” Harmanpreet said after India bowed out of the T20 World Cup in the semi-finals.
When asked about her unfortunate run-out in the post-match conference, Harmanpreet said India could've finished the match an over earlier had her bat not got stuck on the wicket.
“I think if my bat didn't get stuck and I would've easily finished that run, I think if I had stayed till the last moment, we could have definitely finished the match one over earlier as we had the momentum. But even after that, you know, Deepti was there, Richa was there. I had a self-belief that they can do it too because Richa has also batted well in all the matches till now. But I think after I got out, we played 7-8 dot balls in the middle and the match turned there. Otherwise, we had a good momentum and the match was going well,” she said.
Chasing Australia's 172-4 in the 20-over contest, India were reduced to 28-3 before Harmanpreet and Rodrigues put up a fight for the Women In Blue. Harmanpreet played a sublime knock of 52 off 34 balls while Rodrigues chipped in with a brilliant 43 off 24 balls. With 16 needed off the last over, Harmanpreet and Co. only mustered 10 runs as the Asian giants lost the semi-final match by 5 runs. Ashleigh Gardner, who bagged two wickets and scored 31 off 18 balls, was named the Player of the Match.
“We know we have a good batting lineup 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. Happy to see such performances. Happy to see them play their natural game. Even though we didn't play to our strengths, we reached the semis. We gave those easy catches away. Got to take those when you want to win. We misfielded. We can only learn from these lessons and not repeat the mistakes,” Harmanpreet added.
