Brilliant Kaur puts India in driving seat for Lord’s
HARMANPREET Kaur helped India put one foot in the Women’s World Cup final, with her 90-ball century powering her side to 281-4.
Current world champions Australia had it all to do to make it to Lord’s on Sunday as The Cricket
Paper went to press, with Kaur’s stunning unbeaten knock of 171 coming after India were in trouble at 35-2.
But perhaps the strangest incident of the match, which was reduced to 42 overs per side following early rain in Derby, was the moment Kaur should have been raising her bat.
Having called for the second when on 98, her partner Deepti Sharma did not want to run. Cue Kaur desperately calling her through. Had Australia thrown to the bowlers end instead of to keeper Alyssa Healy, Deepti would have been run out.
As it was, both were safe but Kaur was furious with her partner, screaming and shouting and throwing her helmet while the decision went upstairs.
It overshadowed a truly brilliant knock with the No.4’s last 50 coming from 26 balls as she reached her third ODI ton off 90 deliveries and her 150 just 17 balls later.
Kaur said: “I wanted to utilise this opportunity. I wanted to prove myself. My plan was watching the ball and just hitting it hard. I told Sharma to rotate the strike, you don’t need to take the pressure, I could take the responsibility.”
It all came after Australia took the upper hand early on. Smriti Mandhana was out in the first over having lobbed a leading edge to cover, and India were two down inside ten overs after Poonam Raut holed out to deep midwicket.
Captain Mithali Raj looked set for a half-century before she was bowled by Kristen Beams, who also provided a moment of comedy when she bowled a beamer that, landed closer to where gully would have been than anyone else.
And Deepti couldn’t see it through to the end.With her partner hitting it all over the place, she tried the same only to miss with a slog and was clean bowled.