WATCH: Harmanpreet Kaur involved in bizarre run out; fans get furious

The scrutiny on Harmanpreet Kaur and her form in ODIs tightened after she was run out in bizarre fashion in the second NZ v IND ODI of the bilateral ODI series against the White Ferns in Queenstown.

Harmanpreet Kaur is going through a bad patch of form ever since her mind-blowing 171* against Australia in the semi-final of the 2017 Women’s ODI World Cup. She has only scored two half-centuries in the last three years in ODIs but has held onto her spot despite the 2022 Women’s World Cup less than a month away.

With Harmanpreet Kaur needing a massive showing this series, this dismissal would hurt her reputation in the eyes of fans, who have already been questioning why her place in the XI is taken for granted.

In Queenstown on Friday in the NZ v IND game, India got off to a blazing start after Sabbhineni Meghana and Shafali Verma put on a century stand for the opening wicket in 13 overs. It was the third-fastest century stand in Women’s ODIs for India and laid the platform for the middle-order.

However, India lost wickets at regular intervals post that with Harmanpreet’s wicket reducing the team to 166/4. Five overs later, Mithali Raj departed too as India struggled at 187/5.

WATCH THE BIZARRE HARMANPREET KAUR RUN OUT IN THE NZ V IND ODI HERE

an unfortunate wicket of Harmanpreet Kaur, team India down by 4 wickets! #NZvIND #LiveCricketOnPrime pic.twitter.com/mjI4wbz1ou

— amazon prime video IN (@PrimeVideoIN) February 18, 2022

Walking down the wicket to spinner Frances Mackay, Harmanpreet Kaur played the ball straight back at her. While she took her time getting back into the crease, Mackay threw the ball to the keeper and the ball travelled between Harmanpreet’s bat and legs to reach the keeper, who whipped the bails off pretty quickly. 

Harmanpreet was still out of her crease and despite a desperate dive back in, couldn’t make it. She was run out for 13 with fans, scarcely able to believe what they saw, wondering how she managed to get out that way.

Harmanpreet Kaur being runout in ODIs :
vs New Zealand alone – 4 times
vs all other teams combined – 4 times

She got runout today for the first time in more than 6 years. Her last runout in ODIs was also against NZ (at Bengaluru) back in July 2015.#NZvIND

— Rhitankar Bandyopadhyay (@rhitankar8616) February 18, 2022

WTF was that Harmanpreet Kaur , were you sleeping in the middle of the pitch?

Casual, Careless, Shameful.

Was really hoping for a good innings from Harman, so that her confidence gets a boost before the WC, but she keeps finding ways to get out.#NZvIND #NZWvINDW #INDvsNZ

— Vipul Ghatol (@Vipul_Espeaks) February 18, 2022

Gotta say I've never seen that kind of a run out before. Sigh.

Last game, step out full toss mishit to mid wicket.
This game, run out while stepping out.

Maybe Harmanpreet should not step out for a while?

In all seriousnees, Ind really need her in form for the #CWC22

— Snehal Pradhan #MaskUp (@SnehalPradhan) February 18, 2022

What a way to get out, Harmanpreet #NZvIND

— Faith Florence (@thefaithflo) February 17, 2022

Unforgivable stuff from Harmanpreet Kaur. Absolute village stuff!#NZvsIND pic.twitter.com/V1i4uojvUz

— tea_addict (@on_drive23) February 18, 2022

She was the Captain of India W after 2017 WC but #MithaliRaj remains the captain!! And #HarmanpreetKaur also didn't scored consistent match winning knocks. But today's wicket was just a gift. #IndianCricketTeam

— Sanjay Bhardwaj (@BHUKDDSBVLOGS) February 18, 2022

Unlucky is not the word, Careless is. #HarmanpreetKaur #NZvIND

— Abhijit Nair (@Abhiee0312) February 17, 2022

Would love to see the replay of that Harmanpreet Kaur run-out. Sounds like she was completely blindsided by Frankie Mackay there.

— Phil Wheeler (@Phil_Wheeler) February 17, 2022

I know players don’t watch everything, but this dismissal makes me wonder whether these types of things are even discussed in their meetings. It’s not like Mackay has never done this before (even simply throw the ball back to the ‘keeper), so it didn’t come out of nowhere. https://t.co/0TXL3VidX9

— Ananya Upendran (@a_upendran11) February 18, 2022

Yikes, this is just poor. Hard to disagree with Edulji right now. https://t.co/79k8tpm6QC

— The Last Wicket (@thelastwicket) February 18, 2022

Only a day before the second NZ v IND game, former India captain Diana Edulji had made a remark on Harmanpreet’s form, citing that the same yardstick applied to other players should apply to Harmanpreet too.

“If you are going with the same yardstick which was used to drop Jemimah Rodrigues, what the coach (Ramesh Powar) had mentioned, the same yardstick should be applied to Harmanpreet,” Diana told PTI.

“I am very disappointed with her. She was my favourite player but you can’t survive on that one innings (171 against Australia in 2017). She is only one innings away from a big knock but the effort has to be there.

ALSO READ: CSK squad analysis

“Even on captaincy front, Smriti is the front runner for all formats after Mithali as Harman is not performing. I wouldn’t mind dropping her for the next game. Sneh Rana is a good replacement for her.”

**

The NZ v IND series can be watched live on Amazon Prime in India.