India captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s 52 runs off 32 balls and Jemimah Rodrigues' 43 runs off 24 balls went in vain as the Women in Blue lost the crunch semi-final game against defending champions Australia at Newlands, Cape Town. Meg Lanning-led Australia continued their dominance as they continued their unbeaten run to enter their seventh consecutive T20 World Cup final.
Chasing a daunting target of 173 runs, India sustained a horrendous start with openers Shafali Verma (nine runs off six balls) and Smriti Mandhana (two runs off five balls) failing to perform under pressure. Yastika Bhatia, who came out to bat at No.3, could only add four runs off seven balls to the Indian score before walking back to the pavilion.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur and star batter Jemimah Rodrigues then combined for a majestical partnership of 69 runs to bring India back into the contest. But Harmanpreet's bizarre run-out opened the doors for Australia, who used their experience to clinch a thrilling victory.
As a result, the Indian women's team's disappointing run at ICC tournaments once again came back to haunt them.
A look at the Indian women's team's performance in ICC tournaments since 2017:
2017 ODI World Cup: Lost in the final
2018 T20 World Cup: Lost in the semi-final
2020 T20 World Cup: Lost in the final
2022 Commonwealth Games: Lost in the final
2023 T20 World Cup: Lost in the semi-final
After the game, the Indian skipper reflected on her bizarre run-out and the team's performance, that was significantly poor in the field.
"Can't be unluckier than this, to get that momentum back when me and Jemi (Jemimah Rodrigues) were batting. And to lose after that, we didn't expect this today. The way I got runout, 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. 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. Happy to see such performances. Happy to see them play their natural game. We 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 said after losing the match.
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