India captain Harmanpreet Kaur turned up for the post-match presentation wearing sunglasses. It was not a style statement by any means. She perhaps did that to hide her tears. It spoke a lot about Harmanpreet as a cricketer, as a leader and above all, as a human being. She battled illness - she may not have even played this match if it wasn't a World Cup semi-final, and gave it her all on the field. She came out to to bat like a woman possessed. The right-hander smacked the Australian bowlers to all parts of the ground and took India to a commanding position but could not manage to get them over the line. India lost the semi-final to Australia by five runs in yet another heart-wrenching last-over thriller after the sorrows of the 2017 ODI World Cup final and the Commonwealth Games gold medal match last year.
It was India's match, it was Harmanpreet's moment of glory, that's how good she was on Thursday in Newlands, Cape Town. But the unthinkable happened when the nation felt confident of upstaging the mighty Australians. Harmanpreet was run-out in one of the most bizarre ways possible. While returning back for the second run in the 15th over, her bat got stuck inches before the crease. Harmanpreet was run-out for 52 off 34 balls when India needed 40 off 32 balls.
Watch: Harmanpreet bursts into tears after ex-captain Anjum's post-match gesture
It was a telling blow. Australia got a new lease on life and started applying the pressure back. It was too much for Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma and Sneh Rana to handle. India fell five short of Australia's 172 as despair crept into the dressing room. Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, who played a crucial knock of 43 off 24 balls, Richa Ghosh and the other Indian players did their best to fight back tears. But none of them had the responsibility of facing the camera directly like Harmanpreet. She was the captain and had to fulfil the post-match broadcast commitments, so she did, wearing sunglasses.
"The way I got runout, can't be unluckier than that. Putting in the effort was more important. We discussed 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," she said, composing herself.
{{/usCountry}}"The way I got runout, can't be unluckier than that. Putting in the effort was more important. We discussed 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," she said, composing herself.
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