India’s Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 campaign began with a disappointing 58-run loss to New Zealand, marred by a controversial run-out decision, leading skipper Harmanpreet Kaur to emphasize the need for improvement ahead of crucial upcoming matches.
New Delhi: India’s disappointing start in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 saw them suffer a 58-run defeat to New Zealand in Dubai, with the Blackcaps posting 160/4, led by Sophie Devine’s unbeaten 57, while India was bowled out for 102, despite a controversial run-out decision that sparked a heated debate between skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and the umpires.
The drama unfolded on the last delivery of the 14th over when Amelia Kerr hit the ball to long-off, attempted a second run despite Harmanpreet Kaur thinking that the ball was dead. The umpire returned the cap to Sharma when Kerr was run out before she could complete the double, and declared the end of play.
Despite India’s appeal for a run-out and Kerr beginning to walk back to the dugout, the umpires ruled that the ball was dead, rendering the run-out invalid.
The incident began to gain increased attention as more people questioned the legitimacy of the rules, and veteran all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin voiced his concerns over X, soon to be known as Twitter, which later deleted.
“The over was called before the start of the second run. Whose fault is this really? @prithinarayanan,” Ashwin wrote before deleting his post.
After the defeat, Harmanpreet acknowledged that her team did not deliver their best performance in the opening game and expressed a commitment to improving in the upcoming matches.
“We didn’t play our best cricket today. Going forward we have to think what areas we have to improve. Every game now is important and we have to play our best cricket. We created chances, it’s not like that we didn’t create. They played better cricket than us, no doubt about that,” Harmanpreet said after the match.
“This is such a high stage where you can’t make these mistakes. We have chased 160-170 many times. But on that pitch .. it was 10-15 runs too many. At one stage, the way they started, I was thinking it would be 180. This wasn’t the start we were expecting (in this tournament),” she added.
