So near yet so far! Clinical Australia prolong nervy India's misery at Newlands

Australia`s Georgia Wareham (R) fields as India`s Harmanpreet Kaur (L) runs between the wickets during the semi-final T20 women`s World Cup cricket match between Australia and India at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town on February 23, 2023. (Pic Courtesy: AFP)

The emotions ran high at the Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town on Thursday. India, finalists in the previous edition of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup, exited the tournament by the smallest of margins.

After being crushed by five runs, a teary-eyed India's hopes of ending a title drought across formats ended in familiar disappointment. In the end, the margin of defeat was rather shocking, no wider than the few inches between the tip of Harmanpreet Kaur's bat and the crease when she was ominously run out by an equanimous Alyssa Healy.

Also Read: Don't know how many more days will it take to get over this defeat: Harmanpreet Kaur

India required 40 from 32 balls at this juncture, and Kaur, who scored a pivotal 52 off 34 balls, was their last and best hope of getting them. The Indian crowd back in the stands, ear-splittingly loud, fell eerily quiet as the reality sunk in that Australia had won through to the T20 World Cup final.

Lanning and Co. somersaulted and cartwheeled their way to rocket into the World Cup final, as the captain coolly set about her business alongside Beth Mooney, enabling the side to post 172 for 4. It was too much for India, who were outscored in almost every department of the game.

Stuttering Powerplay disfigures India

India needed 173 and they had a considerable amount of time to figure out exactly how to go about it on this tricky, two-paced puzzle of a pitch. Australia too had been obviously doing some plotting. In response, India's slow and shaky start was their only period of parity with Lanning's side. With run-rate pressure building, their angst showed between the wickets. In a matter of ten minutes, India were 33/3.

Now their middle-order had to cover for the lost wickets. India put up 59 on board after Powerplay, and their two swaggering batters, Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues, set about trying to rebuild the innings. Together they wrestled back the match with a vital partnership.

Kaur played so carefully she might have been carrying a risk assessment form, but she seemed to know exactly what she had to do on the crease. Jemimah, full of fire and fury, was embedded at the other end. The youngster gathered up Kaur's slack and began picking off sixes down the ground. She collapsed only moments later, while trying to ramp a short ball over Healy's head but failed.

Also Read: India knocked out of Women's T20 World Cup, go down to mighty Aussies by 5 runs

So it all came down to Kaur. And she made the target look achievable. She swept off Georgia Wareham to earn a barrage of boundaries, but little did she know that there was a pre-ordained catastrophe in place in the same over. It was an error of judgement, a momentary hesitation over whether or not to go for the second run that Richa Ghosh had called for, but it was fatal in a match of such fine margins. Kaur gave in. The bails came off, Kaur was out, and India were too.

Having elevated white ball cricket to another level in recent years, Australia are a formidable opponent even though their batting have gone largely unchallenged throughout the tournament. But they exploited a crestfallen India, who once again fell short at a World Cup event. Only minutes earlier, it had seemed a desperately unlikely result. Even the win predictor at one time favoured India to walk away with the last laugh. And yet here they are, once again left to ponder what might have been!