Cricket

‘Aise catches kon drop krta hai’ - Fans react as Harmanpreet Kaur points out mistakes in India's semi-final loss vs Australia in 20-20 World Cup

Harmanpreet Kaur's run out and many missed fielding chances have led to India's loss against Australia in the 20-20 World Cup.

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Daniel S
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Harmanpreet Kaur India vs Australia

Harmanpreet Kaur India vs Australia (Image source: Twitter)

Indian Women’s team has once again lost the chance to be called the champions after losing to Australia in the first semi-final of the ongoing Women’s 20-20 World Cup in South Africa. Despite losing early wickets, the Indian batters put up a fighting chase against the defending champions and took the match to the last, but India fell short of just 5 runs in the end and missed the chance to win another trophy.

Bowling first, Indian fielders dropped some easy catches. Australian skipper Meg Lanning and Bet Mooney were dropped very early by the Indian fielders. Mooney then went on to score 54 runs off 37 balls including seven fours and a maximum. While Lanning remained unbeaten scoring 49 off 34 balls with four fours and two sixes. Indian fielders also did some silly mistakes on the field, which turned out to make a big difference as India ended only five runs behind Australia. Australia went on to score 172 runs for the loss of 4 wickets.

Chasing the total, India have a disastrous start, as they lost the first 3 wickets for just 28 runs. After that, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues helped India to recover from the early shocks and added 69 runs for the fourth wicket. After Rodrigues got out after scoring 43 off 24 balls, Kaur took the charge and went on score a half-century almost leading her team to a memorable victory. But unfortunately, Kaur suffered an unexpected run out in the 15th over as her bat got stuck just a few inches away from the as she was about to complete the second run. Wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy took no time in clearing the stumps just before Kaur entered the crease. The Indian captain got out after scoring 52 of 34 balls. India were restricted to 167 for 8.

'My runout was the turning point of the match' - Harmanpreet Kaur

During the presentation after the match, Kaur said that her run-out has been the turning point of the match which helped Australia to take control. She further stated that it was the unluckiest way to get runout, and the match would have ended with an over remaining if she was there till the end.

"The way I got run-out… can't be unluckier than that. Putting the effort was more important and I am happy we took this game till the last ball. That is what we discussed in the team meeting, that we want to fight till the last ball. The result was not in our favour but I am happy with the way we played in this tournament," said Kaur.

"If my bat didn't get stuck, that run would have easily happened. If I had stayed till the last moment, the game would have finished an over before given the momentum we had. But even after that, Deepti Sharma was there, Richa Ghosh was there. I had belief that they could get the job done. If you have seen the matches till now, Richa had batted brilliantly. But after my dismissal, there were seven or eight dot balls and that was the turning point of the match. Otherwise, we had good momentum and things were going well," the Indian skipper further added.

Kaur also pointed out the mistakes her team did while fielding and stated that they have to take the chances if they are 100 % in their hands.

"We again gave some easy catches away. When we have to win, we have to take those chances especially, which is 100% in your hands. We did misfield today. We can only learn from these areas and whenever we come next time we should learn from this and should not make these mistakes next time,” said Kaur.

Here's how Twitter reacted to India's loss: 

Cricket News Women's 20-20 World Cup 2023 Harmanpreet Kaur Beth Mooney Deepti Sharma Jemimah Rodrigues Meg Lanning