It is for the second time that India entered to a global cricket clash. In the year 2005, the country lost to Australia while participating for the first time ever.
Nonetheless, now is the time to be proud of and shine.
Harmanpreet Kaur makes India shine at the Women’s World Cup in Australia as she produced one of greatest ever ODI knocks in women’s cricket. With this, India stormed into the ICC World Cup final, with a win over Australia by 36 runs in the semi-final.
It is indeed a great achievement for Indian women cricket team to upstage the six-time champion team of Australia. The women of the match, Harmanpreet took the game to another level with her 20 fours and 7 sixes in an undefeated essay of 171 from 115 balls.
More interestingly, India amassed 139 runs out of which 108 came off from Harmanpreet’s big swing batting. As the 42nd over ended, India had 281 runs on board which proved to be too much for Australia. Even the commendable counter-attack from Ellyse Villani (75 off 58) and Alex Blackwell (90 off 56) couldn’t turn out to be a saviour for the team.
Further, the vice-captain smashed her way to a magical performance on the pitch scoring 171 runs in 115 balls. She certainly left the Australian bowlers in a daze as India put up an imposing 281 for 4 after rain reduced the match to 42-overs a side.
“Coming into the World Cup, considering how the team has been performing in the last two years, I felt that it was the right time for me to elevate my own batting standards into the tournament. It has come back to the same phase where me being in the middle gives a lot of confidence to the others, and it keeps the dressing room more confident,” Indian Women’s team skipper, Mithali Raj stated.
It has to be said that the day belonged to Harmanpreet as her innings and tremendous performance will be remembered for years to come. Not only this, her performance has also drawn comparisons with Kapil Dev’s historic 175 against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells during the 1983 campaign with members of the men’s team. The legends of Indian cricket team are showering accolades on her.