BIG HITS MY WAY OF BATTLING STOMACH CRAMPS: KAUR
Indian skipper explains struggle during her record ton in the Women’s T20 WC against New Zealand
For an ordinary cricketer, battling unbearable stomach cramp could well mean retiring to the cooler confines of the dressing room but if it is Harmanpreet Kaur, she would just hit eight sixes in order to avoid running.
Known for her penchant to raise the bar on biggest platforms, the skipper smashed her way to an unbeaten 103 off 51 balls in India’s comfortable 34-run win against New Zealand in the opening game of the ICC World T20. “Yesterday, I was having little bit back problem,” Kaur said after the match.
“In the morning, I was not feeling well, when I came to the ground I was feeling a little low and getting some cramps.”
The severe cramps hampered her running between the wickets as she came up with a different plan. “When initially I was running twos, I got a little cramp, after that the physio gave me medicine, and a little bit it settled down,” she said.
“Then I thought instead of running too much, if I could I get more big shots. because you run too much, you get more cramps. Then I told Jemi (Jemimah Rodrigues), ‘if you give the strike to me, I can go for more big shots’,” the skipper revealed.
Kaur, whose 171 against Australia in the ODI World Cup last year has become a stuff of legends, didn’t know while batting that she had gone on to become first T20 centurion from the country. “I was not looking at how many runs I was getting, I was looking at how many we needed to win the game,” Kaur said.
“We knew they have really good batters, they have Sophie Devine and (Suzie) Bates, we knew if we scored just 150, we may not [win the game].”
Kaur felt that it was a good batting track where a set batswoman could score big. “I knew it was a good batting track, if I settle down, I can get the runs, that’s what I was thinking.”
Her big-hitting prowess keeps bowlers all around the world on tenterhooks but the Indian skipper is hopeful that there might just be bigger and better things to come. “Yes, why not? Because every day is a learning day, today I learnt a lot.”
India favourites against Pak
After a near perfect beginning, the Indian women’s team will be overwhelming favourites against arch-rivals Pakistan in its second group league encounter on Sunday. Not considered among the top T20 teams in the world, India produced a powerpacked performance against a formidable New Zealand.
With momentum firmly on India’s side, the ‘Women In Blue’ would like to set the record straight after losing to their arch-rivals in the 2016 edition at home. However, since that loss in Delhi, India have played Pakistan thrice across two editions of Asia Cup, winning all the battles. That Pakistan lost by a comprehensive 52-run margin to Australia in their lung opener will also give India an upperhand during Sunday’s encounter.
The best aspect about India’s performance against ‘White Ferns’ was young Jemimah Rodrigues’s matured effort. With her skipper going for the jugular, 18-yearold Rodrigues just tapped for singles giving the senior player bulk of the strike. Yet, she managed to hit seven boundaries at a strike rate of 130 plus.
So much so that veteran Mithali Raj’s services wasn’t required during the Indian innings. The Providence Stadium track proved to be helpful for the slow bowlers with India using as many as four of them in off-spinners Deepti Sharma and Dayalan Hemlatha, leg-spinner Poonam Yadav and left-arm orthodox Radha Yadav.