Kolkata: Indian women’s T20 skipper and Sydney Thunder’s Indian recruit helped them cruise to an eight wicket victory over Melbourne Stars as per reports from the PTI. Kaur, who had a memorable debut with the bat in the Women’s Big Bash after scoring a fluent 47 of 28 balls, failed to get her team over the line as they fell agonizingly short of the total.
However, this time around, she produced an all-round performance by grabbing 4 wickets conceding just 27 runs and came back to hit a quick fire 30 of 21 deliveries.Her all-round performance made her the, “Player of the match” in what was only her second appearance. Needless to say, her BBL season is gaining new heights everyday.
Melbourne Stars skipper Meg Planning won the toss and decided to bat first.However, her team could only muster 116-9 in 20 overs.
The Melbourne Stars could not score freely at the death mainly because of Harmanpreet Kaur.She was the fourth change bowler for her team and when she came on to bowl her gentle medium pacers, she got the wicket of Jess Cameron(36) in the 16th over and Lily Bardsley(2) and Katie Mack(0) in the 18th over.In the final over of the innings, she removed Danielle Hazelle(5).It was multiple strikes towards the end of the innings that thwarted the Melbourne Stars and as a result, they were unable to score freely.
She also played a crucial role in her team chasing the 117 runs target.She came out to bat when 39 runs were still required of 39 deliveries.She scored 24 runs of them in boundaries by hitting three fours and smacking the ball for two sixes.She was ably supported by Australian International cricketer and Sydney’s skipper Alex Blackwell who ended her innings, unbeaten on 21.
She might have won a lot of hearts with her solid all-round performance and according to the PTI, one among her fans was Australian great Adam Gilchrist, who tweeted about her after her first match in the tournament. This is his tweet, “Seriously impressed with @ImHarmanpreet in last nights #WBBL02 Classy, skillful. A wonderful addition to the tournament.”
Surely this tweet would do a world of good to Harmanpreet Kaur who is developing every game and gaining new heights every time she takes the field