Australia women’s team vice-captain Alyssa Healy has taken a jobe at India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on her run out in the first semi-final of the ICC T20 World Cup 2023 in Cape Town, saying that she can call it unlucky as much as she wants, but reality was that she didn’t put in enough effort to get back into crease.
India was cruising towards victory when Harmanpreet Kaur hit a sweep shot to the boundary where Ashleigh Gardner picked the ball and threw it right on the stumps to Healy.
Harmanpreet Kaur was near the crease for second run, when she planted her bat to slide it in, but it got stuck in the ground and Healy took off the bails after finding the right-hander short of her ground.
With 39 needed off 30 balls and five wickets in hand, India failed to build on the momentum set by Harmanpreet and Jemimah, and fell five runs short of the target.
Alyssa Healy has since criticized Harmanpreet Kaur for calling herself unlucky and said that in the end, she was cruising back for the second run and could have made back safely in time, if she had put in the effort.
"It's really funny, actually. Belinda Clark messaged me after and said, like, well done for taking the bails. And it's quite an interesting one because I actually don't take the bails a lot in that sort of scenario. I think it's a waste of time and I've got to put them back on. So. it's annoying. But for some reason, I felt the need to take the bails off and it was like a bizarre moment where I looked at the umpire and I said, I think that's out," Healy said in a video shared by ABC Sport on Twitter.
"And I think Shooter (Megan Schutt) at point was like I think that also is out. So just a bizarre play and I mean Harmanpreet can say all she likes that it was so unlucky, but I mean at the end of the day she cruised back and probably could have been passed the crease, you know, an extra two metres if she genuinely put in the effort. So we'll take it.
You could say you're unlucky all your life, but it's generally about effort and energy at that moment in time. And I know that's something we speak about in the field in particular is putting in that effort and putting in that energy. And I think that comes back to running between wickets as well. It's doing those little basics better than the opposition and that's how you win big tournaments. And I feel like we've been doing that quite well," added Healy.
Australia made it into their seventh successive final and will take on hosts South Africa on Sunday, February 26, 2023.
