By Brij Parasnath
INDIA’S captain Harmanpreet Kaur stamped her attractive world-class batting style and, aided by a clinical and authoritative display, ignited the ICC Women World T20 with a plethora of records, as she registered her career-best and piloted her team to a new tournament’s highest team total, when they amassed 194 for 5 in their allotted 20 overs.
The forceful right-hander became India’s highest scorer and third player, after West Indies Deandra Dottin (112*) and Australia’s Meg Lanning (126); to score a World T20 century.
She entered her name indelibly into the record books with a magnificent match-winning 103 against the powerful New Zealand outfit, in the opening match of the 2018 Edition, at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence on Friday.
She was the chief architect of her team’s 34-run victory after the Kiwis were restricted to 160 for 9 in the allotment.
The 29-year-old Kaur’s footwork, timing and placement were impeccable and she collared the New Zealanders in impressive fashion to pilot India to a new World T20 highest score of 194 for 5 in their allotted 20 overs. She became India’s first World T20 International centurion and her superlative innings became the tenth overall triple-figure mark.
Despite her ill-health brought on by nervousness and a series of cramps in the stomach and abdomen areas, Kaur asserted her superiority over the Kiwis and disdainfully smashed the white ball with enough power and energy to clear boundary markers on eight occasions. She had both umpires doing extra work in the blazing sunshine that graced the South American venue.
Indisputably, it was one of the greatest exhibitions of power-hitting by a woman player in any format and some of her mighty sixes were bigger than her male counterparts ever struck at this venue or any international venue globally.
Kaur’s innings was embellished with eight huge sixes and seven delightful fours of 51 balls. Her first fifty took 33 balls and included four sixes and three fours; while the second fifty was rattled up off 15 balls; and added four more sixes and four boundaries in her historic march.
She was treated on field for the cramps, but like a lioness protecting her young cubs and her territory in the jungle, Kaur treated the millions of global TV audience, especially in her home country, and the 5,000-odd spectators at the ground, with a majestic batting display that set the tone for a memorable tournament in the Caribbean.
It was not surprising that she took on her opposite number Amy Satherwaite (NZ captain) and smashed her for two glorious sixes and a scintillating four off her only over, the 18th of the innings that yielded 18 runs.
The second of the sixes was smacked straight down the ground and unto the black sightscreen at the southern end of the ground. Later in this history-making knock, she stepped out of her crease and lofted one of the biggest maximum that sailed into stratosphere, as if it was Atlantic Ocean-bound. But it dropped high up among the middle rows of seats in the red stand, situated at the north-western end of the ground.
Kaur, in her 21st World T20 match; bettered hers and India’s previous best of 77 in Women World T20 history. She had notched that score against Bangladesh at Sylhet on March 30, 2014.
She became the ninth player to register a T20 International century and also went ahead of her illustrious teammate Mithali Raj whose 97 not out versus Malaysia in the first match of the Asia Cup at Kuala Lumpur on June 3, 2018 was the previous best by an Indian woman player in T20Is.
She led by example and was well-supported by India’s rising teenage-star Jemimah Rodrigues who played one of the best cover-driven four at this venue, which was specially built with the aid of the Indian government and their architects for the 2007 ICC World Cup.
Rodrigues set the stage for the massive assault with her fluency and smart placements that unnerved the Kiwis, who seemed to have placed the Indians on the back foot after they prised out three quick wickets for only 40 runs in 5.4 overs.
In her debut outing at the highest level, she contributed a heart-warming and classy 59 that was studded with seven elegant boundaries off 45 deliveries and signalled that better days of what should be an illustrious international career for this ambitious youngster are ahead
Kaur and her younger teammate restored respectability and together they forged a new Women World T20 as well as a new Women T20 Internationals fourth-wicket partnership that was worth 134 invaluable runs.
Rodrigues got her maiden World Cup fifty and contributed 48 runs to their new record partnership, while the dominant Kaur added 85 to that total, which bettered the previous World T20 mark of 91 between C. Brits and S. Benade of South Africa against New Zealand at Taunton on June 15, 2009.
Their 134 is now the second highest partnership for all wicket partnerships in World T20 tournaments, bettered only by the unbroken 163 for the first-wicket between Lizelle Lee and Dane Van Niekerk of South Africa against Pakistan at Sylhet on April 23, 2014.
Australia held the record for the previous highest Women World T20 team score of 191 for 4 versus Ireland at Sylhet on March 27, 2014.
India’s new-look ‘Blue Army’ are now the new holders with 194 for 5, which also forms part of the newly established Women World T20 match aggregate of 354 runs for 14 wickets (India 194 for 5 and New Zealand 160 for 9).
It surpassed the previous best of 333 for 9 between West Indies (175 for 5) and South Africa (158 for 4) at Basseterre on May 5, 2010.
Kaur and her team have started a glorious new chapter for Women World T20 cricket as a standalone international competition.
The belligerent and sparkling strokeplay of the 29-year-old Indian right-handed shotmaker creates and ushers in a new era and impetus for women cricketers to be respected and adored as world class entertainers in their own queendom.
