Women’s World Cup: Deepti Sharma’s no ball cost India dear in the loss to South Africa
The Indian women’s cricket team crashed out of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 after narrowly losing their final league match to South Africa. Mithali Raj and team needed to win the last match to qualify for the semi-finals. The closely fought match went down to the wire and in the end a no ball on the penultimate delivery of the last over by spinner Deepti Sharma cost the team dear.
South African mainstay Mignon du Preeze was caught in the deep as the South Africans needed 3 runs off 2 balls, but the delivery was adjudged to be a no ball and that brought equation down to 2 runs off 2 balls and du Preeze eventually won the match for her team.
Had that not been the case, South Africa would have needed 3 runs to win off just one ball with twi lower order batters in the middle and India would have been in the driver’s seat for a place in the semis.
It wasn’t to be for the Indian women’s team and former Indian men’s team opener Virender Sehwag summed up the situation with a tweet, that focussed on the vagaries of the sport.
Promoted
“It wasn’t just the no ball which cost India the game today but sometimes an inch costs moments that takes decades to achieve and are possibly once in a lifetime achievement for many players. Disappointing end to India’s campaign #IndvSA #cwc22,” Sehwag wrote on Twitter.
It wasn’t just the no ball which cost India the game today but sometimes an inch costs moments that takes decades to achieve and are possibly once in a lifetime achievement for many players. Disappointing end to India’s campaign #IndvSA #cwc22 pic.twitter.com/2DzerovJD1
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) March 27, 2022
Sehwag used photos of four no balls in his tweet, which included the one bowled by Deepti Sharma, which was just an inch away from being a legitimate delivery. It also had the image if Jasprit Bumrah’s no ball from the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy final against Pakistan as it had given a reprieve to Fakhar Zaman, who went on to score a match defining century as India lost to Pakistan.
The Indian women’s team was in with a chance to qualify for the semis but the tournament was a rather disappointing one for them as they lost to the top sides Australia, England and New Zealand, before going down to South Africa.
Topics mentioned in this article
