An example of how glorious a sporting relationship between two players and indeed teams can be was set by Australia’s Alex Blackwell after she presented Harmanpreet Kaur with an Aussie team jersey soon after India’s 36-run victory in the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup.
The 28-year old’s performance led India cricket coach Ravi Shastri and experts like Harsha Bhogle, Alan Wilkins and Ayaz Memon to compare her innings to the 175 scored by India’s World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev against Zimbabwe in the 1983 edition. She is a very stylish player with unbelievable determination, discipline, focus, all that is required to make a champion.
Eventually, India won the match by 31 runs to revive their campaign in the quadrennial tournament. She has the power to score boundaries at will, like we saw on Thursday.
The other century makers are Smriti Mandhana and Poonam Raut; Smiriti started off well, but seems to have gone into a rut after the century against England.
Harmanpreet Kaur has finally come in to her own. Gradually, she has learnt to build an innings. Wishing her a bright future and success in her life, the Chief Minister expressed the hope that this daughter of Punjab would bring more laurels to the state in the field of sports.
“Mithali (Raj) and Deepti (Sharma) scored really well and Veda [Krishnamurthy] scored really well”, she added complementing her batting companions. She was glad to know that her efforts were being recognized by such a senior cricketer.
“I’ve played the last eight or nine years with (Kaur), we play for the same domestic side so I’ve seen the beast mode often, but today to play in a semi-final, that’s incredible, she’s just wonderful”, said Veda.
“She was only becoming consistent”, Jain told DNA.
“Earlier she was attacking all the time”. It’s huge for women’s cricket, playing at the home of cricket and in front of a capacity crowd. “Also, we have beaten England in the league series so the girls are confident”. India will take on England on July 23 at Lord’s in the summit clash.