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'Mr Gavaskar said...': Ex-India captain blasts Harmanpreet, accuses her of being 'casual' in World Cup semi vs Australia
Former India captain Diana Edulji minced no words as he launched a brutal attack on Indian women's players after the T20 World Cup semi-final defeat to Australia.
Team India faced a narrow five-run defeat to Australia in the semi-final of the Women's T20 World Cup on Friday. India's shoddy fielding and catching allowed Australia to post a challenging 172 for four after Meg Lanning opted to bat. In the run-chase, India were once struggling at 28/3 but Harmanpreet Kaur (52 off 34) and Jemimah Rodrigues (43 off 24) produced a counter-attacking 69-run stand off just 41 balls to bring the team back in the game. India needed a very gettable 39 off last 30 balls with five wickets in hand but as it has been the case in the past, the team came up short to finish at 167 for eight.
Following the match, Indian team received support from fans and former cricketers for their gritty fightback against the world no. 1 side, that has reached the final of every edition of the Women's T20 World Cup since its inception. However, India's former captain Diana Edulji wasn't too impressed with the side's outing in the semi-final and expressed her anger at the players; she was critical of Harmanpreet Kaur for her seeming lack of effort that resulted in her run-out, and also criticised Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues for their shot selection.
Harmanpreet's bat got stuck in the ground while coming back for the second run in the 15th over, and Alyssa Healy was quick to take the bails off with the Indian captain short of the crease.
“She is thinking the bat got stuck but if you see the second run she was jogging. Why are you running in a relaxed manner when you know when your wicket is so important? You have to play professional cricket to win. Look at the dive Perry made to save those two runs. That is what professionalism is,” Edulji told PTI.
Harmanpreet's run-out was the biggest turning point of the match. The Indian lower-middle order crumbled under pressure after Harman's run-out against the run of play.
Edulji recalled an advice from the legendary Sunil Gavaskar to criticise Harmanpreet for the run-out.
"They don't give up till the end and we are not ready to fight at all. You can't be falling at the last hurdle all the time.
"She was casual on the second run. She thought she would comfortably reach. We were told in the 1970s by Mr. Sunil Gavaskar that every ball you have to learn to ground your bat then only you get into that habit.
"Her bat was in the wrong hand (left). If she held it in the right hand, she would have been able to stretch herself and complete the run," she further said.
Harmanpreet, for her part, expressed her disappointment for getting run-out like that.
“It was a disappointment because the way I was batting, maybe that was the only chance to know how I can get out. Otherwise, the way I was meeting the ball, I know how to take this inning till the end. But sometimes it happens in cricket and we have to accept whatever happens. But otherwise, I am happy the way we played cricket throughout this tournament. We saw some really good performances like Richa did,” she told reporters after the match.
