Harmanpreet Comments on IND vs AUS: India may have felt like they had seen this before when they lost a major final due to another batting collapse. They put out a significantly greater effort on Sunday (August 7) in the Commonwealth Games final against Australia than they did in the Women’s T20 World Cup final of 2020, but the outcome – coming in second place – remained the same.
The defending T20 world champions, Australia, have outstanding fortitude in challenging matches. Jemimah Rodrigues and India’s skipper Harmanpreet Kaur put together a third-wicket partnership, adding some of their own tenacity to the chase. They recovered from being down 22 for 2 in the third over, and they quickly sparked the chase with a partnership of 96 runs in just 77 balls.
Before Megan Schutt defeated Rodrigues for a run-a-ball 33, the race for Australia’s 161/8 and the gold medal was in full swing. What came next was a batting meltdown, which Harmranpreet was ultimately left to regret.
We repeatedly make the same errors (with the bat) in major finals, and it is something we need to work on, according to Harmanpreet. In either the league phase or the bilateral, we don’t make these errors. That is causing a blockage in our thinking. I am a person who is constantly wanting to add a batter to the side. We are, unfortunately, working on it. This thing [collapsing] will stop once we have that.
“The manner Jemi and I batted at that point was desperately required after we dropped two critical wickets. You must maintain your composure. We were getting close. Maybe we could have won the game if Pooja [Vastrakar] or I had been present. But it is part of the game; there are occasionally circumstances that are beyond your control. We are learning a lot from it “Added her.
India made the most of the moment before the pressure of the scenario overcame them, and they did an excellent job of keeping Australia to 162 runs. India’s skill in the field, which was on display several times during the first innings, was largely responsible for that accomplishment.
“You need to field well if you want to defeat this Australian squad. They may quickly steal the game away from you if you give them easy runs. Radha set the bar for us at our team meeting as we talked about it “According to Harmanpreet.
Yadav made a number of breakthroughs with great work on the field just as Australia put up a sizable partnership for the second wicket. Yadav quickly responded as Australia attempted to sneak in a single with a leg-side push. She made excellent ground and delivered an underarm throw at the striker’s end, where Lanning was caught short.
To dismiss Tahlia McGrath in the following over, Yadav made a superb diving catch at the backward point. Deepti Sharma and Meghana Singh both made outstanding catches as the game went on, with the latter grabbing a one-handed blinder at mid-on to terminate Mooney’s stay in the 18th over. India improved as the game went on.
“The effort we put up today is something we wanted to do. I know the last 2-3 overs [in the chase] were not in our favor but throughout the game, the way we played was outstanding to watch. We’ve been working on our fielding for a long time. I’m happy with the way we fielded today. That is something we wanted to do as a team.”
Despite failing at the last hurdle, India’s campaign will go down in history. Their only two losses in the competition were to the eventual gold medalists, and in the semifinal, they defeated one of the tournament favorites—the hosts.
“I know we could’ve easily won gold, but something is better than nothing, at least we got silver. We deserved it for so much hard work. If not gold, we’re satisfied with what we got today,” Harmanpreet said.
Meg Lanning, Harmanpreet’s counterpart, was effusive in her admiration for India despite the fact that they came up short in the most crucial game. She predicted that India will eventually rule the sport across all formats. Harmanpreet agreed completely.
“[As a team] we are on the right track, we just need to keep working hard. As Lanning said, we’re not far from dominating across formats. We are improving as a team and time is not far when we will start winning back-to-back,” Harmanpreet said.
Also Read: Fighting Indian women’s cricket team settle for silver in Birmingham
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