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 women's sports, they hardly anticipated the remarkable success women's cricket received in India.
But what was the factor that triggered a turnaround story? Why all of a sudden people started talking about Indian women cricketers? How Harmanpreet Kaur's innings in the semifinal became the most talked-about point on social networking sites?
But first things first, the rise of women cricket in India is nothing sort of a beautiful love affair. It all happened on 20th July 2017, when the World Cup was almost over, the group stage was finished, and not many in India let alone globally were people aware that a cricket World Cup was taking place somewhere in Europe.
And then came the semi-final of the Women's World Cup 2017, Mithali Raj-led India qualified for the WC through qualifiers that were set to take on the mighty Australians.
Even before the game kicked-off, the India Team was written off. The most common perception which was making rounds was that a mediocre team like India can never defeat world number one? Earlier, Australia did take down India at the group stage of the tournament.
However, the stage was all set and stars were aligned to make that day a momentous one in Derby. It was cold and rainy in Derby when Harmanpreet Kaur walked with bat on the country ground, and the rest as they say is history.
Mithali Raj-led India were reduced to 101-3 in the 25th over in the 42 overs-a-side game. The Indian side 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 inside out it was Harmanpreet. She had played with and against the Aussies in Women's Big Bash League. Her WBBl stint had taught her that an aggressive reply would put the Oz team on defence.
Harmanpreet started the game rather typically moderate. She scored 41 off 60 balls in the company of Raj. She played the waiting game and also survived a few stumping chances. However, with each ball, Kaur's confidence was escalating.
Harmanpreet 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 back to the stands, Harmanpreet had to shoulder the responsibility of taking the team to a respectable total in the company of young Deepti Sharma.
The garguntum energy inside Harmanpreet bubbled after she was given a free hit and she dispatched that ball for a maximum. And after that Harmanpreet 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 Harmanpreet.
Harmanpreet, who belonged to a different league altogether, did not even 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 miscule break, what we witnessed was history in the making.
After scoring her century, Harmanpreet's strike-rate went from 111.11 to 284 in her final 25 balls. Harmanpreet scored 71 runs off the last 25 balls, as India added 119 runs in the 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.
Yet the beauty of that innings was not the big-hittings, 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 Harmanpreet's splendid batting.
The World Cup was played on Indian television on prime time and the cricket frenzy nation was just awed to witness the breathtaking batting display of a girl from a small town of Punjab.
Harmanpreet'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 hashtags.
Harmanpreet's innings against Australia had changed people's mindset about women's cricket and after that, nobody looked at women's game in the same way ever again.
-- By Sneha Singh
