The Mumbai Indians captain, one who has never played at Wankhede for her franchise, did step up for India at the same venue during a one-off Test against Australia.
Harmanpreet Kaur, who is also the captain of the Indian team, came to the rescue when things were looking tough for the home side. Usually, when we talk about her heroics, it’s about her batting but this time Harmanpreet the bowler came to the fore.
Australia prepared for the likes of Pooja Vastrakar or Deepti Sharma but Harman came out of syllabus. The right-arm off-spinner, who often bowls a few wrong ones in between, broke a crucial partnership between Tahlia McGrath and Alyssa Healy.
The Aussie duo was looking determined to bat long and slowly bring the team back into the game. They had a stand of 66 runs together but that was not the key aspect of their partnership. They were there to stay at the crease for as long as they could and stop the flow of wickets. They were successful in that as both the batters played 175 balls together and stayed on the wicket for 102 minutes.
But in the 103rd minute, came the part-time off-spinner from Punjab. McGrath, who successfully played out the leg ball trap laid by the Indian team, tried a forward defence against Harman but ended up with an inside edge that ended up on the stumps. McGrath scored 73 runs in 177 balls as she alone occupied the crease for a good 209 minutes.
After the McGrath wicket, the next big target was skipper Healy’s wicket which was also looking a bit tough at that moment. Healy did eventually get out to Harman but not without a little drama. It’s India vs Australia, some drama has to be there in a Test match involving both sides.
WHAT HAPPENED?
The Indian captain was bowling to Healy who played a forward defence shot. The ball went straight to Harman who picked it up and threw it towards the wicket in an attempt to catch her outside her crease. The ball went straight towards Healy who used her bat to deflect it in order to protect herself. Harman turned towards the umpire to appeal against Healy using her bat, instead the umpire signalled a four as the ball went to the boundary after deflecting from Healy’s bat. Harman was furious and visibly upset with the decision but she went to her mark to bowl her next delivery.
She could have asked for anything at that moment and it would have come true because the next delivery produced a result that every bowler dreams of after an altercation. Healy, for the hundredth time in this innings, tried sweeping the ball down to the square leg but the ball missed the bat and went on to hit her pads. India appealed, the umpire raised his finger and within a second Healy asked for a review.
Did Healy really believe she was not out or was that an impulse decision taken out of self-respect, nobody will know but Healy herself. The decision stayed and Healy had to walk back to the dressing room. Harman, in her true trademark style, celebrated with pure animated emotions as it was a big wicket for team India and Harman herself.
Ellyse Perry, in the press conference after the end of Day 3, said that she has no idea about what transpired between the two.
“I missed it. I was in the physio room talking rubbish with some of the players. So I don’t know what happened there,” said Perry.
“GOOD BATTLE BETWEEN HARMAN AND US”
Perry praised Harmanpreet’s bowling saying that she had a really good impact on the game.
“It looked like she was starting to get a few things happening,” Perry told the media after the day ended here at the Wankhede.
“Obviously, she had quite a few appeals and took a couple of wickets. So she’s had a really good impact on the game this afternoon, which was cool to see. And a good battle between our batters and her. It just seemed like the game started to pop up a bit more when she was bowling,” the Australian all-rounder added.
“GOLDEN ARM”
Deepti Sharma was also all praise for her captain Harmanpreet as she referred to her as a player with ‘Golden Arm’.
“Harry di (Harmanpreet) has a golden arm,” said Deepti.
“Whenever she bowls, she gets a wicket. I remember, even in the 50-over World Cup in New Zealand she got a wicket as soon as she came to bowl. She is always ready to bowl. Whenever there is a tough situation like this when all the bowlers are bowling, you need a magical bowler to get a wicket. The partnership was building and we got a wicket at that time,” Deepti added.
Deepti also underplayed the Harman-Healy incident saying that ‘these things happen in cricket’.
“See these things happen in the heat of the moment in cricket. The throw didn’t matter to us, we were just focussed on where to bowl and how to get wickets. I won’t speak much on that,” said Deepti.
Australia has still five wickets left in their kitty and they would be looking to put up a good score and put India into a chase on the final day of the Test. Will the ‘golden arm’ put on a magical show tomorrow? Well, we will have to wait and see.
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