Former India cricketer Dodda Ganesh criticised women's team captain Harmanpreet Kaur for blaming teammate Shreyanka Patil for the defeat against Australia in the second T20I on Sunday.
Australia needed 15 runs from the final two overs in their chase of 131 against India at the DY Patil stadium in Mumbai when 21-year-old off-spinner Patil was brought into the attack by Harmanpreet.
Shreyanka Patil gets smashed for 17 in 19th over
But Patil couldn't stop the flow of runs from the bats of Ellyse Perry and Phoebe Litchfield, who scored 17 in the penultimate over to register a 6-wicket win for Australia to level the three-match series 1-1.
After the match, Harmanpreet was asked about the reasons behind India's unsuccessful attempt at defending 130 to which she blamed the 19th over bowled by Patil.
Harmanpreet puts the blame on Patil
"I think score wasn't enough on the board but our bowlers did really well. We took it to the 19th over, that was the biggest positive.
"In the 19th over, if Shreyanka was on target, it would have made a huge difference for us. But yeah these are the things we need to do. We have seen these sorts of games a lot of time," Harmanpreet said at the post-match presentation.
India captain slammed for her comment
But her comment did not go down well with Ganesh, who played 4 Tests and 1 ODI for India in 1997. The 50-year-old felt that the Indian women's captain shouldn't have put the blame on such a young cricketer.
"Throwing a 19yo kid under the bus is not done #INDvAUS," Ganesh tweeted.
Netizens were also not impressed with Harmanpreet's comment about Shreyanka and took to X to slam the skipper.
Australia level series with 1 to go in Mumbai
India posted 130 for 8 on the board after being asked to bat first by the Aussies. Deepti Sharma top-scored with 30 but the rest failed to fire against the likes of Annabel Sutherland (2/18), Georgia Wareham (2/17) and Kim Garth (2/27) on a slow pitch.
Australia then rode on a brilliant 34 not out from Ellyse Perry to cross the finish line with 6 balls to spare. It was also Perry's 300th international match which she celebrated by hitting the winning six off Patil's final delivery.
