File image of Harmanpreet Kaur and Ravichandran Ashwin© X (Twitter)
India are off to a forgettable start in the Women's T20 World Cup 2024 as they lost their opening game against New Zealand by 58 runs in Dubai. Batting first, The Blackcaps posted a total of 160/4 with skipper Sophie Devine scoring an unbeaten 57. Later, Team India got bundled out for 102 as Rosemary Mair registered a four-wicket haul. This match had a big controversial moment when batter Amelia Kerr was declared not out on a run out appeal, prompting India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur to indulge in a heated discussion with the umpires.
The incident took place on the last delivery of the 14th over, when Kerr played over to long-off and went for a single. However, while Harmanpreet at long-off thought that the ball was dead, Kerr decided to go for a second run and was actually run out before completing the double. However, by that time, the umpire had already given the cap back to Deepti Sharma and signalled the end of play.
While India appealed for a run out and even Kerr made her way back to the dugout, the umpires decided that the ball was dead and as a result, the run out was not valid.
This incident grabbed a lot of attention and raised questions on the credibility of the rules. Veteran India all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin also took to X (formerly Twitter) and expressed his concerns on this incident. However, he later deleted the tweet.
"The over was called before the start of the second run. Whose fault is this really? @prithinarayanan," Ashwin wrote before deleting his post.
After facing the defeat, Harmanpreet admitted that her side did not give it's best in the opening game and will look forward for improvement.
"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.