Women's Cricket
Horror in field, top order failure: India knocked out of Women's T20 World Cup
The Indian women's cricket team conceded at least 20 runs through misfields and then pressed the self-destruct button to lose to Australia by 5 runs in the semifinal.
Jemimah Rodrigues dives in during her 24-ball 43
India fumbled, stumbled, dropped catches, and knocked themselves out of the Women's T20 World Cup after losing to Australia by 5 runs in the semi-final on Thursday.
The Southern Stars, who always act as the kryptonite of the Indian women's team, came strong as ever to hand India another defeat in a World Cup knockout game.
Chasing a huge 173, the Indian batting lineup collapsed like a pack of cards with just two cards shouldering the innings - both were queens. Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and batter Jemimah Rodrigues showed the only fight in a disappointing batting performance from India.
Starting the chase, explosive batter Shafali Verma got out after scoring a boundary in the powerplay and Smriti Mandhana followed her partner moments later after being trapped plumb in front of the wicket.
Yastika Bhatia showed some promise but then ran out herself to a brain-fade moment following a disastrous communication with Jemimah Rodrigues.
What followed next was a masterclass from Jemimah, who clobbered the Australian bowling across the park and made sure India remained in the hunt.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur put every doubt about her fitness to rest with her brilliant innings of 52 of 34 balls.
Jemimah and Harmanpreet kept the hopes of Indian team and fans alive but once Jemimah got out to bouncer and Harmanpreet found herself stuck in the crease for an unfortunate run-out, the rest of the team folded like pack of cards.
While Harman and Jemimah scored a combined of 95 runs in 58 balls, the rest of the team managed just 61 runs in 62 balls with 11 runs coming as extras. India finished with 167/8 after 20 overs.
A fielding disaster class in first innings
Earlier, Australia won the toss and decided to bat first. Despite Renuka Singh not finding much help from the pitch, Indian bowlers started with tight lines and economical overs.
Alyssa Healy started the innings with a four of the first ball from Renuka Singh but the Indian pacer bowled well to concede six runs in the first over.
Australia ended the powerplay with a modest 43/0 despite Indian fielding being horrible.
Radha Yadav struck in her first over as she got rid of Alyssa Healy but India never capitalized on the breakthrough. Two overs later, Sneh Rana induced an edge of the Australian captain Meg Lanning but Richa Ghosh dropped it.
The fielding nightmare continued for India as Shafali Verma dropped a catch of Beth Mooney of Radha Yadav in the 10th over. Apart from two catches, India missed run out chances and fumbled throughout the innings to concede more than 20 runs in misfields.
Both the catches came to haunt India as Beth Mooney scored 54 off 37 balls and Meg Lanning scored 49* off 34 balls to power Australia to 172/4 at the end of 20 overs.
When the Indian team will look back at this fielding performance, they will be reminded of those five runs which came to haunt India at the end.
