Follow UsWhen Sree Charani came to bowl during India’s semi-final clash against Australia in the Women’s World Cup 2025 on October 30 (Friday) at the Dr Dy Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, she struggled to get the rhythm going early on. In her first spell, she went for 23 without a wicket in her five overs.
However, as soon as she came back for the second spell, she posed all sorts of questions to the all-set Australian batters and eventually got the wicket of Beth Mooney. One followed another and all of a sudden, she had the wicket of Annabel Sutherland in her kitty as well.
The pressure built by her led to the fall of Ellyse Perry, who was cleaned up by Radha Yadav at the other end. India were at prime position then, having pushed the Aussies back from 220/2 in 34 overs to 243/5 in 40. It was as if the air was pumped out of Australian batting and they were looking for help from one place to another.
But who helped them? None other than the Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur herself. She took Charani out of the attack when she was needed the most to attack the new Aussie batters at the crease. Harman brought back Deepti to try and get her overs out of the way, but it proved contrary to wherever she thought it would do for the betterment of the team.
Not only was Deepti not able to get any wickets, she also gave time to the new Aussie batters to settle in and that eventually led to them getting to 338. What could have possibly been a total under 300, ended up being a total, which if chased down by India, would have to be done by breaking several records.
It could have been that Charani might not have picked up wickets even if she were to continue bowling and was bowled out when she was in great rhythm. But at least, then, no one would have questioned the decision to bowl her out, because that’s what the general course of action should have been.