Harmanpreet Kaur found it difficult to control her tears as she cursed her poor luck for a freak run-out that led to another heart-breaking knock-out defeat against Australia in the semi-final of the Women's T20 World Cup on Thursday.
Battling high fever and dehydration, the Indian skipper who faced a medical emergency on the eve of the match, struck a delightful fifty and conjured a scintillating partnership with Jemimah Rodrigues, but in the end was caught inches short while failing to slide her bat in.
India lost the last-four encounter by five runs.
"Can't feel unluckier than this," Harmanpreet said at the post-match presentation ceremony where she wore black sunglasses to avoid eye contact while shedding tears.
"We got the momentum back with Jemi (Rodrigues). To lose from here, we weren't expecting this," said Harmanpreet, as she struggled for words after the shattering loss.
When the presenter asked why she had tears, the skipper replied, "The way I got run out, (it) can't be unluckier than that. Putting the effort was important and we were happy to go to the last ball. We wanted to fight till the last ball."
Harmanpreet gave credit to Jemimah for her gutsy show and said that she was satisfied with the overall show.
"Even after losing the first two wickets, we knew we had a good batting line-up. I should give credit to Jemimah, she gave us the momentum. Happy to see some good performances," she added.
It was another tournament where India failed to beat both England and Australia.
"We played some good cricket. Today was something where we wanted to play our natural game. Few of us did that."
On a forgettable fielding effort, Harman defended her team.
"We again gave some easy catches away. When you have to win, you have to take your chances. We can only learn from these (mistakes)."
Australian skipper Meg Lanning was happy that her team made it to their seventh global T20 final despite not playing at their best.
"One of the best wins I've been involved in, to fight back after not playing the best cricket in all three facets. We missed our lengths and gave some width. India came hard at us, so we knew this score would've been hard to defend. But we pulled through in the crunch moments."
"Got nervous a couple of times. But we knew playing against these guys, that you need to stay in the game to get over the line. Kaur was unfortunate. We didn't panic even when we weren't bowling well. These are the kind of games we want to win. Can't wait to get here for the final."
