Here comes the Indian Hurricane – from Moga

Gaurav Kanthwal in Chandigarh

Hurricane Harmanpreet, Harmonster, Superharman, Lady Viv Richards, Kaurnage and what not…

Moga girl Harmanpreet Kaur’s unbeaten knock of 171 runs on Thursday which ripped apart defending champions Australia in the ICC Women’s World Cup semifinals in Derby, England, has earned her many monikers. But she and a bunch of bubbly girls have something much bigger on mind. They are out to conquer the world on Sunday night when they take on hosts England in the final at Lord’s.

“I’m looking forward to the final. England is a good side and we will definitely give them a fight. It’s always good when you score runs for your team and I’m very happy. When we started from Mumbai, we were thinking of reaching the semifinal and now we are here,” says Harmanpreet, a die-hard Virender Sehwag fan.

Celebrations have already begun, in fact it never stopped, once the girl from Punjab’s hinterland, fed on a diet of butter-chicken, landed lusty blows to the tournament favourites in the semifinals. Since then, the buzz around the Indian women’s team and its hero, Harmanpreet, has gone over the rooftops.

Her father, Harmandar Bhullar, is a clerk at the District Courts in Moga. “With dhol beating continuously, it appears a wedding is going on in our house. All our relatives have started gathering at our house to watch the final.”

In a family of five with an elder sister and a younger brother, Harmanpreet is closest to her mother and makes it a point that she talks to her at least once a day. A tattoo with the word ‘Ma’ written in Hindi on the side of her left forearm followed by tapering six stars is an expression of her love for the dearest person in her life.

“We, and the whole of India, are praying and hoping that the celebrations will continue till Harman and the team return with the World Cup to India,” says Gurjinder Singh, Harmanpreet’s brother.

Even though Harmanpreet suffered a side strain during the semifinal, Australia had no answer to the 28-year-old’s onslaught which included 20 fours and seven sixes. The right-handed middle order batswoman notched up her third ODI century, the first outside India and her highest-ever score. Harmanpreet is now fourth in the list of top-five individual scores in the World Cup. Her knock is among the best by an Indian batswoman in the World Cup. Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman, Ravi Shastri and Cheteshwar Pujara were all enamoured by her power-hitting.

The Indian team’s vice-captain, and a useful off-spinner, is valued in her team for scoring at a fast clip and having good match awareness. After her whirlwind knock, it’s evident that she’s a clean hitter of the ball and has the uncanny knack of clearing boundaries at will.

Her childhood coach Yadavinder Singh Sodhi, now a head coach at Port Adelaide Cricket Club, Adelaide, said, “Harmanpreet is endowed with very good timing. She is equally strong on both sides of the wicket. Harman has developed a habit of watching the ball for first two-three overs, read the pitch and bowler accurately before going for her shots.”

It was Kamaldeesh Singh Sodhi, Yadavinder’s father, who brought her to the Gian Jyoti school academy in Tarapur in 2007 after seeing the class IX girl’s flair for the game. “When I first saw her at the Guru Nanak Stadium, she was playing with boys. The first impression I got off the girl was that “guddi ch current ta hai” (the little girl has got fire in her). I brought her to my academy and started honing her skills. Girls by nature are sincere and hardworking, Harmanpreet had a passion to play cricket in her and I just had to guide her into making an attacking but calculated batswoman.”

The 28-year-old allrounder made her ODI debut against Pakistan in 2009 and since then has scored 1974 runs in 77 ODIs and 1223 runs in 68 T20Is. She is the first Indian to play in the Women’s Big Bash League (2016) in Australia. She has scored 296 runs in 12 innings for Sydney Thunder franchise. In June 2017, Harmanpreet, employed as chief office superintendent in Western Railways, became the first Indian to sign with Surrey Stars in Kia Super T20 League in England.