'Not a schoolgirl mistake...': Harmanpreet hits back at Hussain for taunting her run-out in World Cup semifinal vs AUS

Harmanpreet, who scored 52 off 34 balls, was asked about Hussain's ‘schoolgirl error’ comment, in the post-match press conference. Just like her counterpunches to Australia, she came up with a hard-hitting answer.

Harmanpreet Kaur's run-out was the single biggest event that completely turned the Women's T20 World Cup semi-final between India and Australia on its head. From being in a comfortable position of needing 41 runs off 33 balls, India faced the task of scoring 16 runs off the last over with only one recognised batter - Deepti Sharma - at the crease. India, in the end, lost the match by five runs as Australia marched on to the final.

Harmanpreet Kaur hit back at Nasser Hussain

Harmanpreet's run-out was an event in itself. After reaching her half-century with a boundary, she swept Georgia Wareham between square-leg and deep mid-wicket. Beth Mooney did exceptionally well to stop the boundary. She picked up the ball cleanly and threw it back at Harmanpreet's end. The Indian captain would be the first to admit that she perhaps took it a little bit easy in the last half of the run but then again, she was perhaps saving energy, not to forget she battled illness to play this game. Nine out of 10 times, she would have reached home even after that but Friday was the one odd day. Her bat got stuck on the ground and she was short when Australia keeper Alysa Healy took the bails off.

The opposite emotions in the Australian and the Indian camp that followed after the run-out narrated the entire story of the match.

While most experts agreed that Harmanpreet was unfortunate to get run-out that way, former England captain Nasser Hussain talked about the Indian captain's errors. He termed Harmanpreet's ginger movement in the last half of the run as a 'school girl error' in the commentary.

Harmanpreet, who scored 52 off 34 balls, was asked about Hussain's comments in the post-match press conference, just like her counterpunches to Australia, she came up with a hard-hitting answer.

"How will you take the pressure when someone like Naseer Hussain on live commentary calls it a schoolgirl error or a club cricket error? How do you defend something like that?" the reporter asked.

"He said that? Yes. Okay. I don't know. That is a way of thinking. I don't know. But sometimes it happens. I have seen many times in cricket when batters are taking a single like that and sometimes the bat is stuck there. But obviously, I will take it as we were unlucky today. Maybe something still, we have to improve to go to the finals because we definitely didn't field badly. We didn't bowl well in patches. Sometimes we didn't bat well. If you want to win any game, we have to do well in all the departments. Then only you have more chances to go to the semis, to the finals. I think it was unlucky but I don't think it was a mistake by a schoolgirl because we are mature enough. We are playing international cricket and whatever he said, that's his way of thinking. But I don't think it was like that," Harmanpreet said.