India captain Harmanpreet Kaur showed great courage to come and play in the first semi-final of the ongoing ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 against Australia in Cape Town as she and Pooja Vastrakar were hospitalized a day before for illness.
While Pooja was ruled out of the game due to an upper respiratory tract infection and replaced by Sneh Rana in the squad, Harmanpreet decided to play the game given the stakes of qualification in the final.
Australia won the toss and chose to bat and thanks to Beth Mooney’s 54, 49* from skipper Meg Lanning and a quick 18-ball 31 from Ashleigh Gardner, posted 172/4 in 20 overs. They were helped a lot by some sloppy fielding and catching from the Indian team as well.
In reply, India lost their top three in Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, and Yastika Bhatia for single-digit scores and only recovered well due to Jemimah Rodrigues’ counter-attacking 43 in 24 balls and her 69-run partnership with Harmanpreet Kaur.
The Indian skipper continued and reached her half-century in 32 balls, but was run-out in a bizarre fashion shortly after.
In the 15th over, Harmanpreet swept spinner Georgia Wareham along the ground and completed the single and went back for the second run. Mooney collected the ball and threw the ball right at the stumps where Healy collected it and whipped off the bails in no time.
Harmanpreet was taking it easy with the second run and when she just grounded her bat near the crease, it got stuck and her feet were in the air when Healy dislodged the bails and the third umpire ruled her out.
Check it out here:
Harmanpreet was distraught at her running and on her way back to the pavilion chucked her bat twice, once on the ground, when she lost the grip of the handle while trying to slam it and then on the steps near the dressing room.
Here is the video:
In the end, Australian bowling prevailed as India could only muster 167/8 and lost the first semi-final by 5 runs.
