New Delhi: India's stand-in captain Harmanpreet Kaur hogged limelight with her last-over six against South Africa in the final of the Women’s Cricket World Cup qualifiers on Tuesday.
With eight needed off the final two balls, the right-handed batswoman shimmied down the track and dispatched South African pacer Marcia Letsoalo over midwicket for a six and then took two off the last ball to secure the title for her team at the P Sara Oval, in Colombo.
It was a sensational win for the Indian team as Harmanpreet held her serves under tremendous pressure.
Here's how the last over panned out:
9 needed off 6 balls:
Harmanpreet worked the first ball towards cow corner and ran for a suicidal second run as the fielder threw the ball at non-striker's end and Poonam Yadav was run-out for 7.
Rajeshwari Gayakwad was the next woman in and Harmanpreet had a small chat with her about what they needed to do.
8 needed to win off 5 deliveries
Harmanpreet attempted a big slog-sweep off the second ball which hit her on the body, no runs scored.
8 needed off 4 balls
Third ball was pitched wide, Harmanpreet charged down the wicket and hit it straight towards long-off but refused the opportunity to take a single.
8 needed off 3 balls
Fourth ball was a slow yorker. Harmanpreet was fortunate that the ball did not hit the stumps.
8 needed off 2 balls
Harmanpreet charged down the wicket off the fifth ball and tonked it over deep midwicket for a six.
2 needed off 1 ball
Harmanpreet once again came down the wicket, converted the ball into a full-toss and hit it towards long-on. The players took two runs to pull off a brilliant victory:
Watch the video of the last over here:
Earlier, Indian bowlers did well to dismiss South Africa for 244.
