Mumbai Indians have become the first team to seal their position in the playoffs in the ongoing Women’s Premier League (WPL) season following a herculean effort from Harmanpreet Kaur. Mumbai Indians chased down a massive 91 runs off last six overs against Gujarat Giants to get over the line thanks to their skipper who turned on her beast mode at the right time.
When Kaur came out to bat, the defending champions had lost a couple of quick wickets. They had lost all the momentum from the powerplay overs and needed 134 runs off 75 deliveries.
To make things worse, Harmanpreet Kaur didn’t look in good touch at all. By the time, 14 overs were bowled in the innings, MI had touched the 100-run mark and needed 91 more to scripted in improbable win and had lost their set batter Yastika Bhatia only in the previous over. With a fresh batter at the other end, and Kaur struggling at 20 in 21, it seemed only a matter of time before Giants took two points out of this match.
Fastest to 1000 Test runs among Indians
This is when Kaur decided to up the ante and without exaggerating, it was certainly the mode that Australia had witnessed in 2017 World Cup semifinal.
Harmanpreet Kaur unleashes beast mode
Her partner Amelia Kerr just made sure to give her the strike and rest was taken care of by the MI skipper. Meghna Singh, Shabnim Shakil and Sneh Rana were the three bowlers who bore the brunt of her assault as MI scored 19, 18 and 24 runs in 15th, 17th and 18th overs respectively.
With only 23 runs required off last two overs, something strange happened at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi as the water sprinklers turned on between the overs much to the surprise of everyone. Play was stopped for eight minutes as the players had to wait for ground to dry but that didn’t affect Kaur’s concentration.
She continued from where she left smashing Giants’ best bowler of the season Tanuja Kanwar for a six to bring the equation down to 13 off the last over. Kaur ended the competition in the first two balls of the final over churning out 10 runs off Ashleigh Gardner to eventually take her side over the line.
She remained unbeaten on 95 off just 48 deliveries with 10 fours and five sixes to her name. Interestingly, Kaur scored a staggering 75 off her last 27 deliveries hitting eight fours and five sixes during this period.
Harmanpreet Kaur has certainly found her lost mojo with the bat in this WPL season and not only Mumbai Indians but also the Indian team will be delighted to see her click. With the T20 World Cup set to be played in September-October this year in Bangladesh, Kaur’s form bodes well for India and if she continues in the same vein, India’s Women’s team might finally end the country’s ICC trophy drought.
