Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who was seen wearing sunglasses following her team's defeat to Australia in the semi-final of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023, explained the purpose of the shades were to prevent her nation from seeing her crying. The women in blue put up a good fight against the five-time champions, but agonisingly missed out on a place in the final.
"I don’t want my country to see my crying, hence I am wearing these glasses, I promise, we will improve and won’t let out nation down like this again," she said after the match.
Chasing a target of 173 runs, India got off to the worst start they could possibly have imagined, as the first three wickets fell inside the fifth over. At 28/3, the already tall climb seemed to be transitioning into unscalable proportions, but a stunning fourth-wicket stand between the skipper and Jemimah Rodrigues got India back in the hunt.
Shortly after bringing up her half-century, however, Kaur lost her wicket in a rather unfortunate manner. Whilst running a couple, her bat got stuck in the pitch, resulting in a bizarre run out.
Speaking on the incident after the match, the 33-year-old said “Can't be unluckier than this, to get that momentum back when I and Jemimah 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 Jemimah for the way she batted today. She got us the momentum we were looking for. Happy to see such performances,” she further added, praising Rodrigues for her 24-ball 43.
We Can Only Learn From This: Harmanpreet Kaur on Missed Catches
Earlier during Australia’s innings, India gave a few freebies away. Meg Lanning, who later went on to score 49, was dropped on 1 by wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh, while Beth Mooney was presented an extra life when Shafali Verma dropped a dolly. Moreover, Ghosh also missed a stumping opportunity.
Speaking on the poor fielding effort, Kaur stated “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.”
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