ICC Women's World Cup 2025: Harmanpreet Kaur blames top-order failure for loss against South Africa

Harmanpreet Kaur blamed top-order collapse for World Cup loss.

Indian women's team captain Harmanpreet Kaur did not hold back after the hosts were defeated by South Africa in a nail-biting thriller on Thursday at the ACA-VDCA Stadium. Kaur cited the top-order batting collapse as the reason for their loss. During the first innings, India were reeling at 102 for 6 but managed to post 251 runs, thanks to Richa Ghosh, who scored 94 off just 77 deliveries. Coming in at number 8, Ghosh smashed 11 fours and 5 sixes which helped India bounce back into the contest.

However, Ghosh's effort was not enough to secure a win as South Africa chased down the target with five balls to spare. All-rounder Nadine de Klerk was on song as she smashed 84 off 54 balls to guide her team over the line. She also won the Player of the Match award for her brilliant knock.

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“As a top-order, we did not take responsibility and lost too many wickets,” Harmanpreet said.

“We kept losing wickets in the middle, and that’s something that has been happening in the last few games. We need to sit down as a group and discuss what we can do better to post decent totals.”

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“It is a long tournament. This was a tough game, and both teams played really well. Even though we collapsed, we still managed to put 250 on the board, which shows the potential we have. But if we want to compete consistently, our top-order needs to deliver,” she added.