The Indian captain got run out with her bat sticking on the pitch at the last moment with the semifinal of the women's T20 World Cup at a knife's edge at the time.
The untimely bat-stucker run out that brought about the downfall of Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur to turn the women’s T20 World Cup semifinal around in Australia’s favour wasn’t mainly about misfortune, insisted Aussie wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy.
Talking about the game-changing moment in the aftermath of the Indian defeat, Healy suggested the “unlucky” narrative in relation to the Harmanpreet run out doesn’t hold weightage in her eyes as the batter could’ve reached her mark if she had been a little more alert to the situation.
Hitting the ball to the deep when batting well set on 52 off 34, Harmanpreet Kaur got run out with India needing a further 40 from 32 deliveries to overhaul the mighty Australians.
But just when she was about to make it back to her end, the right-hander’s bat got stuck on the pitch and resulted in a dismissal, with Healy taking the bails off.
The run-out left the Indian captain fuming, especially as the game tilted decisively in Australia’s favour from there on. When India could’ve gone ahead and won the semifinal clash with Harmanpreet leading from the front, they ultimately suffered a gut-wrenching five-run defeat.
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“Harmanpreet can say all she likes that it was so unlucky, but at the end of the day she cruised back and probably could have past the crease – you know, an extra two metres if she genuinely put in the effort,” Healy told ABC Sport in an interview.
“Harmanpreet can say all she likes that it was so unlucky.” 👀
For all young cricketers wanting to learn the value of staying alert on the field, listen to Alyssa Healy.
100% correct.👍 pic.twitter.com/Uu46ggwiQ6
— ABC SPORT (@abcsport) February 26, 2023
Healy believes if Harmanpreet was quicker to sprint across for the last piece of running, she would’ve easily made it past the crease before the wicketkeeper could even collect the ball on the throw. The experienced Australian cricketer said her counterpart failed to keep in touch with the basics under pressure.
“You could say you were unlucky all your life, but it’s generally about effort at that moment in time, and that’s something we speak about in the field in particular, in putting in that effort and putting in that energy – and I think that comes back to running between wickets as well,” she added.
