Captain Harmanpreet Kaur: Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who hit a sensational 95 not off 48 balls in Mumbai Indians qualifying for 2024 WPL playoffs with a seven-wicket win over Gujarat Giants, said there was nothing special in her mantra about the blazing knock, where the focus was to move with the pace of the calculations.
Chasing 191 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday, Harmanpreet helped Mumbai smash 91 runs in the last six overs to chase down 191 with a ball to spare, which is now the highest successful chase in the history of the competition.
Harmanpreet now holds the record for the highest score by an Indian batter in the WPL. Before the strategic time-out at the end of the 13th over, Harmanpreet was at 18 off 19 balls with two boundaries. After that, she initiated a stunning acceleration by smashing 77 off the next 29 balls, including hitting eight fours and five sixes.
“There’s no secret, it’s all about calculations. At the international level, everyone knows how to calculate a run chase. If the scoreboard demands 10 runs in an over, you’ll bat accordingly. There’s no special mantra that I can say I uttered to achieve this. The communication with Amelia was clear and we backed ourselves according to that,” said Harmanpreet on JioCinema after the match.
She also felt all-rounder Sajana Sajeevan taking out captain Beth Mooney did the trick for them to come back in the game, resulting in Gujarat facing a batting wobble at the end to end up with 191.
“In the first 10 overs, we gave away too many runs. But when SS (Sajeevan Sajana) got Mooney (Beth) out, the momentum started shifting towards us. Especially in the last four to five overs, we did a good job of stopping them.
“In the middle, we thought they might score 200+ runs which would make it a challenging run-chase as chasing over 200 always puts more pressure on the batting. The way we came back while they were batting so well, gave us confidence that we can win the match if someone plays a long innings.”
Hailing Harmanpreet’s knock, Reema Malhotra, the former India cricketer-turned-broadcaster, talked about the positive impact of the right-handed batter’s performance on women’s cricket via the WPL.
“This isn’t just a win for the Mumbai Indians, it’s a win for women’s cricket. Every match we are seeing players increase the bar of performance. This is the kind of platform women’s cricket was waiting for. We have to salute the TATA WPL for this,” she said.
