Punjab girl Harmanpreet Kaur rose to the occasion and struck arguably the finest ever World Cup knock against Australia in the 2^nd Semi final of the Women’ World Cup to take India to the final of the tournament for only the 2^nd time in the history. It was just mayhem at the Derby yesterday as Harmanpreet smashed the listless Aussie bowlers all around the park and remained unbeaten on 171 of a mere 115 deliveries, an innings which included a whopping 20 fours and 7 hits over the fence.

She came to the crease with India struggling at 35/2. She began slowly and could only master 1 in the first 60 deliveries before she cut loose and made the Aussie bowling attack look pretty ordinary, She treated the spinners with disdain and kept on finding the gaps on a regular basis. Her blitz helped India score 139 in their last 11 overs which propelled them to 282/4 in the allotted 42 overs in the rain curtailed contest.

It was sensational hitting by Harmanpreet who scored her last 71 in just 25 deliveries. It was clean hitting and the Australians were left scratching their head as they were left clueless in front of a Harmanpreet onslaught. Aussie captain Meg Lanning conceded that they didn’t have any sort of idea what so ever to stop the first woman to get a contract in Australia’s Big Bash League.

This is the 5^th highest individual score in Women’s ODI’s and coming at such a crunch game against the 6-time world champions makes it very special. It was once in a lifetime knock by Harman who made batting look ridiculously easy at the Derby. Alex Blackwell as a token of appreciation gifted Harmanpreet her jersey and she was overjoyed with the gesture shown by Blackwell.

Taking to her twitter account, Harmanpreet thanked Alex Blackwell for the jersey. Blackwell waged a lone fight towards the fag end of the innings as she smashed her way to a brilliant 90 of a mere 56 deliveries which were decorated with 10 fours and 3 sixes. She found the boundaries on a consistent basis and gave India a scare but eventually it wasn’t to be for the Aussies as they fell short by 36 runs.