India's women's cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur.
Credit: PTI File Photo
In their final Group A match of the ongoing women's T20 World Cup, Team India, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, slumped to a rather shocking defeat against Australia on Sunday by 9 runs in Sharjah.
This loss, coupled with New Zealand's victory over Pakistan in another Group A fixture, ended India's chances of making it to the semi-finals of the World Cup as they were ousted from the group stages of the competition.
As a result, India's women's team captain Harmanpreet Kaur has been facing a lot of criticism for her lacklustre approach in the final over of the match against Australia.
India, asked to bowl first against Australia, held the reigning champions to a chaseable score 151/8. However, the Aussies managed to win the match, as they were able to restrict India to only a score of 142/9. After the match, skipper Harmanpreet found herself under fire for her antics in the last over even though she ended up being the team's highest scorer with 54 runs.
With Harmanpreet on strike, India needed 14 runs from the final over to win. Despite the pitch favouring the bowlers, Harmanpreet managed to reach her half-century and was expected to lead her side to victory.
On the first delivery of the final over, however, the captain took a single and put Pooja Vastrakar on strike. Aussie pacer Annabel Sutherland clean bowled Vastrakar right on the second ball of the over, and on the third, Arundhati Reddy was run out.
Harmanpreet was back on strike once more on the fourth delivery - but she again opted to take a single, putting Shreyanka Patil on strike.
Now, with 12 still needed in just 2 balls remaining, Patil was run out on a wide delivery and Radha Yadav out LBW in the very next ball. On the final legal delivery, Renuka Singh only managed to take a single, resulting in a nine-run victory for the Australians.
Many fans were left perplexed by Harmanpreet's strategy of settling for singles rather than taking on the pressure herself.
"Why didn’t Harmanpreet Kaur keep the strike to herself?", asked one fan in a post on social media platform X.
"13 needed off 3, and Harmanpreet Kaur casually takes a single, leaving it to Shreyanka Patil, who hasn’t even faced a ball yet, to hit two consecutive sixes. Genius move or next-level faith? Either way, that’s some real trust in your teammate!", posted another X user, questioning Harmanpreet's tactic in the final over of the match.
"This match and innings might just be a fitting microcosm of Harmanpreet Kaur's career. Without her, India would often not have gotten as close as they did to the target but almost always it has been a case of so near yet so far. Stranded at the non-strikers end", quipped another fan on X.
New Zealand's victory last night meant that India were eliminated from the Women's T20 World Cup at the group stage.