“My Intention was to give the captain some empathy because that’s all I can offer from the outside. It was an emotional moment for both of us. It was a player-to-player moment with her."
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Former India captain Anjum Chopra shared an emotional moment with Harmanpreet Kaur following India’s five-run defeat against Australia in the Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final. Anjum Chopra can be seen comforting a heartbroken Harmanpreet Kaur in a video provided by the ICC. “My Intention was to give the captain some empathy because that’s all I can offer from the outside. It was an emotional moment for both of us. It was a player-to-player moment with her. We were just trying to lessen our sorrows by sharing them,” said Anjum. “India have reached the semi-finals a lot of times. And have lost a lot of times. This is not the first time I have seen her play like this. I have also seen her battling injuries and her health,” said Anjum.
Today she might not have even played, but because it was the semi-final of a World Cup and it’s Harmanpreet Kaur, she is a player who doesn’t back down but charges ahead, she did just that. Today, before the match started, she was able to bring herself to play this match. And continued with it while fielding runnings all over the ground. The captain said I’ll go everywhere. And then with the bat, she rekindled India’s hopes. Of course, Jemimah Rodrigues also played a part. Five runs sometimes it’s a lot, sometimes it’s less but the way this match went I can understand what she must be going through.”
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Despite a fantastic middle-order performance that pushed the game down to the final few deliveries, Australia’s first-innings total of 172/4 proved just somewhat out of reach. Arguably the most significant turning moment in the game occurred when India’s skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was run out with her bat jammed into the ground as she attempted to run it in. With the skipper back in the dugout, India’s need for fast runs at the end proved a little too much for them, as they came agonisingly short.
Australia have reached their seventh consecutive ICC Women’s T20 World Cup final, and will be trying for their sixth trophy and third in a row when they return to Newlands on Sunday to face either England or South Africa. The response began with runs flowing, but Megan Schutt caught Shafali Verma lbw for 9 and Ash Gardner removed Smriti Mandhana for 2 to put the Aussies comfortably up early on. Yastika Bhatia’s run-out tightened Australia’s hold on the contest. Harmanpreet Kaur joined Jemimah Rodrigues out in the middle at number five, and the two went about launching a counter-attack.
The 59 runs scored by India in the Powerplay are the most permitted by an Australian attack in the opening six overs of a match since the last Women’s T20 World Cup in 2020. Previously, Australia won the toss and chose to bat first against India at Newlands, and the good news for India was that Kaur was out in the middle for the toss, despite rumours that she was too ill to play. Because of the sickness bug, India was missing Pooja Vastrakar, who was replaced by Sneh Rana, and there was an interesting change in the balance as they added another top-order batting option in Yastika Bhatia.
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