Credit: ICC
On July 20, 2017, Harmanpreet Kaur broke into record books as the India Women batter with the highest-individual Women’s ODI World Cup score for her innings in the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2017 semi-final against reigning champions Australia Women. The rain-curtailed game was played at the County Ground and the right-handed batter lit up the venue with her scintillating batting show. Following the fall of India’s both openers Smriti Mandhana and Punam Raut, Kaur came to bat at number four and built a 66-run stand with her captain Mithali Raj off 94 balls. After Mithali’s departure, Kaur got support from Deepti Sharma.
Kaur took Australia’s quality bowling-unit to the cleaners and completed her hundred in just 90 balls. It became the third-fastest century for India Women in the 50-over format of the game. After reaching the century, she became relentless and demolished the defending champions’ bowling attack completely. After the conclusion of the first innings, Kaur went back to the pavilion with an unbeaten 171 off just 115. Her innings was studded with 27 boundaries (20 fours and seven maximums). Riding on standout knock, India erected a massive total of 281/4 in 42 overs.
Harmanpreet Kaur’s knock handed India a 36-run victory
Kaur’s batting performance emboldened India’s bowling attack and they created pressure on the Aussie team in the early overs of the innings. Within the first powerplay, Australia lost their top-order batters, Beth Mooney, Meg Lanning, and Nicole Bolton at a score of 21.
Ellyse Villani and Alex Blackwell put up some fight with their bats and scored rapid 75 and 90 respectively. However, their knocks weren’t enough to take the Women in Yellow home as they got bundled out on 245 in 40.1 overs and fell 36 runs short in the chase. Kaur’s valiant batting brilliance got her the Player of the Match (POTM) award.
