Cape Town: Australia wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy feels it wasn’t luck but lack of “genuine effort” by Harmanpreet Kaur that resulted in the Indian captain’s bizarre run-out during the women’s T20 World Cup semifinal.
India had nearly pulled off a win against Australia, riding on Harmanpreet and Jemimah Rodrigues’ 41-ball 69-run fourth-wicket partnership.
However, Harmanpreet’s bat got stuck on the ground while trying to complete a second run in the 15th over and Healy was quick to take the bails off with the Indian captain out of the crease.
The incident changed the complexion of the game as India eventually lost by five runs to be knocked out of the women’s T20 World Cup.
“…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,” Healy said in a video posted by ABC Sport on Twitter Sunday.
After the game a tearful Harmanpreet had said “can’t feel unluckier than this.” But Healy feels otherwise.
“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,” Healy said.
“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.
Recollecting the chain of events, the wicketkeeper batter said she was generally not the one to remove the stumps in such a situation.
“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.”
“And I think Shooter (Megan Schutt) at point was like I think that also is out.”
She added that doing little things right enabled teams win big tournaments.
Five-time champions Australia will take on hosts South Africa in the summit clash Sunday.
PTI