During India’s match against Pakistan at the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup, Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur injured her neck while trying to avoid a stumping.
Despite having another ordinary day on the field – yet again, multiple catches went down – India managed to restrict Pakistan to 105-8 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Arundhati Reddy finished with 3-19 and Shreyanka Patil with 2-12, while Nida Dar top-scored for Pakistan with 28.
India needed to get their runs quickly after their 58-run defeat against New Zealand, but they opted to begin cautiously. Smriti Mandhana fell early, while Shafali Verma (32 in 35 balls) and Jemimah Rodrigues (23 in 28) preferred to take the chase deep. There was a moment of alarm as India slipped to 80-4, but Harmanpreet Kaur (29 in 24) pushed India to within two runs of a win.
There were still eight balls left. As Dar tossed the ball up outside the off stump, Kaur stretched out, missed the line, lost her balance, and seemed to have pulled a neck muscle. However, despite everything, she showed enough presence of the mind to ground her foot inside the crease.
Kaur survived the stumping, but the injury forced her to retire hurt. She became the fourth cricketer (after Javeria Khan in 2016, and Stafanie Taylor and Taniya Bhatia in 2020) to retire hurt at the Women’s T20 World Cup.
New batter S Sajana off-drove the next ball to the fence to take India home with six wickets and six balls in hand.
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