Hyderabad: Cricket has already become a religion when the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to invest in the women's game during the Women's World Cup 2017. And when they were promoting and making people aware of the women's sports, even they would not have expected the success women's cricket received in India.
But, how does it happen? Why all of the sudden people started talking about Indian women cricketers? How Harmanpreet Kaur's innings in semifinal became the most talked-about point on social networking sites?
Women cricket's rise in India is a beautiful love affair, that people must know about.
It all happened on 20th July 2017. The World cup was almost over, the group stage was finished, and not many in the world or let alone in India were aware that there a cricket World Cup taking place somewhere in Europe.
And then comes the semi-final of Women's World Cup 2017, Mithali Raj-led India that qualified for the WC through qualifiers, was set to take on the mighty Australians.
Even before the game began, India were written off. Because how can a mediocre team like India defeat World number one? It must also be noted that Australia had already defeated India at the group stage of the tournament.
However, the stage was set and stars were aligned to make that day momentous, it was cold and a rainy day in Derby when Harmanpreet walked to bat on the country ground and rewrote history book.
Mithali Raj-led India were reduced to 101-3 in the 25th over in the 42-overs-a-side game. And the Indian had also lost their in-form batter Mithali Raj.
The stage was all set for a fairytale, and if there was any Indian women cricketer, who knew the Australians, it was Harmanpreet. Harman had played with and against the Aussies in Women's Big Bash League. And Moga's girl WBBl stint had taught her that an aggressive reply would put the Oz team on defence.
Harman's start in that game was typically slow. Kaur had scored 41 off 60 balls in the company of Raj. Kaur was playing waiting game, she had also survived a few stumping chance. However, with each ball, Kaur's confidence was growing.
Kaur was able to strike the ball on the middle of the bat against the seamers, an Achilles heel for her till then. However, with Raj gone back to the stands, Kaur had to shoulder the responsibility of taking the team to a respectable total in the company of young Deepti Sharma.
The volcano inside Kaur's heart bubbled after she was given a free hit and she dispatched that ball for a maximum. And after that Kaur targeted Australia's left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen. The left-arm spinner, who was brought back into the attack after the dismissal of Mithali, conceded 24 runs in her next two overs. And after that, a century looked inevitable for Kaur.
Harman, who was in a league of her own, did not event celebrate her ton. In fact, if anything she was livid with her partner Deepti Sharma for her hesitation in running a second and the potential run-out chance.
A small break in the middle, when the stump-mic was getting changed, was all Kaur needed to regain her composure. And after that break, what we witnessed was history in making.
After scoring her century, Kaur's strike-rate went from 111.11 to 284 in her final 25 balls. Kaur scored 71 runs off last 25 balls, as India added 119 runs in next 10 overs. In her next eight balls, Kaur scored 21 runs as she remained unbeaten at 171 and India posted a mammoth total of 281 runs. But the beauty of that innings was not the big-hitting, it was not that India knocked Australia out of the competitions, it was not that India have reached the finals of Women's World Cup, the beauty of that innings was that the world was watching Harman's batting.
The World Cup was played on Indian television on prime time and the cricket frenzy nation was shocked to see the breathtaking batting display of a girl from a small town of Punjab.
Kaur's innings of 171, trended on social networking sites for the next seven days, and at the end of that year #WWC2017 was amongst the most used hashtag.
Harman's that innings against Australia had changed people's mindset about women's cricket and after that, nobody looked women's game in the same way ever again.
