Image Credit- MI
Captain Harmanpreet
Kaur referred to her wicket as the pivotal moment shortly after the Mumbai
Indians’ WPL 2024 campaign came to an abrupt end following a five-run loss in
the Eliminator match against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Charlotte Edwards,
the head coach, agreed with her and encouraged her to “take that shot
on”.
Harmanpreet, who needed 16 off 13, danced to Shreyanka Patil down the track
before diving in to long-on. Mumbai failed to retain their title after that,
managing just 10 for 2 in the final two overs.
“You could see
the lift [Harmanpreet’s wicket] gave the RCB,” Edwards said after the
match. “Equally we would back Harman to take that shot on. If it goes for
six, we need 12 [10] in the last two and we are in the driving seat. I thought
it had gone for six when she had hit it.
“You’ve just got to back the player to do what they think is the best in
that situation. Who am I to tell Harmanpreet Kaur what’s the right thing to do
when she has performed the way she has in this tournament? At that point that’s
her shot, that’s her strength. If she hits it for six, we’d be sitting on our
seats… but still, with 16 needed off two overs, we should still win that game.
It was a pivotal moment in the game.”
After Harmanpreet
rushed down and swung at a ball that Patil had tossed up, she had already
avoided a stumping opportunity on the first delivery of the eighteenth over.
However, Patil was able to outsmart her India skipper four balls later.
“For 38 overs of the game we controlled it, we just didn’t control the
last 12 balls of the game and ultimately that cost us a finals’ spot,”
Edwards said. “We would have taken 135 at the start of the game with the
short boundary on that [off] side. We got to give credit to RCB because they
fought back and never gave up. The game is won or lost on small margins
sometimes – if Harman hits that for six, it is our game. Unfortunately, it was
not to be tonight. It’s bitterly disappointing, and harder for the players.
They are going to re-live those moments for a number of years.
“I am just disappointed because we played well. We responded well from the
other day and played good cricket for 38 overs and probably let ourselves down
in 12 balls.”