R Ashwin raises questions on Harmanpreet Kaur’s heated verbal exchange with Umpire, however later Deletes the post

The Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 has not commenced as favorable for India as they suffered defeat handing their opening match against New Zealand by 58 runs in Dubai. Batting first, The Blackcaps managed to score a total of 160/4 with their Captain Sophie Devine remaining not out on 57. And then, Team India, in response, was all out for 102 with Rosemary Mair taking four wickets in the process. There were various incidents in the match likely to bring loads of tension such as when batter Amelia Kerr was not out after being run out and cricket captain Harmanpreet Kaur was seen arguing with the umpires.

This incident occurred on the very last delivery of over number fourteen, in which Kerr tapped the ball over to long-off and attempted a run. As the ball seemed ‘dead’ to Harmanpreet at long-off, Kerr attempted to take the second run and was run out prior to making the two runs safely. But, that was the time when the umpire returned the cap to Deepti Sharma and called for the end of that over.

While runner-out appeal was made by India for the same and with even Kerr heading back to the dugout, the umpires in clear terms signaled a dead-ball which invalidated the runner-out appeal.

This incident attracted huge media coverage and undermined the integrity of the rule. Veteran India all rounder Ravichandran Ashwin also took to X (formerly Twitter) regarding this incident and registered his disagreement with it. But he would delete the tweet later on.

“In whose error was the play halted before the commencement of the second run? @prithinarayanan,” was the final tweet he posted before taking it down.

After the loss, Harmanpreet acknowledged that her team let the opportunity go in the very first match by not performing their best and will aim for betterment.

“We didn’t play our best cricket out there today. Moving forward we have to assess what areas we need to work on. Every game now is crucial and we need to play our best cricket. We did create opportunities, it’s not like we did not create. They played better cricket than us, no doubts about that,” said Harmanpreet after the match.

“This is such a high stage where you can’t afford to make these errors. We have chased 160-170 on numerous occasions. But on that surface… it was 10-15 too many. At one stage the way they were beginning I was thinking they will score 180. This was not the kind of beginning we had imagined (in this tournament),” she continued.