The Indian women's cricket team fell at the penultimate hurdle as Australia book their seventh successive Women's T20 World Cup final spot. Despite a disappointing fielding performance, India did well with the bat in phases to come close to Australia's total of 172 runs. Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues kept India's hopes alive before the skipper got run out in the most bizarre fashion. When Harmanpreet was asked about her dismissal, she admitted that there can't be a more 'unlucky' way to get dismissed.
It was the 15th over of India's chase, with Harmapreet keeping the team afloat. During the 4the delivery of the over, Harmanpreet's bat got stuck into the ground while running. The batter was found just inches shy of her crease as the bails were dislodged.
The incident changed the momentum of the game, with Australia taking the driving seat.
Speaking of the incident, Harmanpreet said that she couldn't have been unluckier.
"Can't be unluckier than this, to get that momentum back when me and Jemi 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," she said.
Harmanpreet also credited Jemimah Rodrigues for her performance that saw her score a quick-fire 43 off 24.
"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," said the India captain.
At the end, Harmanpree also confessed that India were poor in the field.
"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," she concluded.