PM Narendra Modi congratulates Harleen Deol on 'phenomenal' catch; see post

Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh/Northampton, July 11

Harleen Deol's superb catch has caught Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attention as well. The Prime Minister took to his Instagram story, and praised the 23-year-old for her stunning catch of Amy Jones. 

The Prime Minister wrote: “Phenomenal, well done". 

Here’s the post:

Harleen took a magnificent catch on the boundary, to get rid of Amy in the 19th over of the first innings.

Also read:

• Watch 'catch of the year': From England Cricket team to Sachin Tendulkar, all 'bow' to Harleen Deol

Meanwhile, Harmanpreet and Harleen pulled off splendid catches in the rain-hit first T20I which England won by 18 runs here on Friday night.

"When you play a team game, you need a momentum and it can come from any member of the team. When I took the catch, it created a sort of energy in the team and then Harleen also took a brilliant catch. So to create that energy, you need to take some extra effort," Harmanpreet said during the virtual press conference.

"Throughout the game, our ground fielding was good, we saved a lot of runs, and we also took some brilliant catches, so I think it is a great sign that our fielding has improved a lot."  

In the penultimate over, Harmanpreet, fielding at long on, put an end to Nat Sciver's brilliant innings by diving to pouch the ball inches over the ground.

Two balls later, Harleen put an end to Amy Jones' innings, as she jumped to take a superb reverse-cupped catch at the boundary above her head before losing her balance. 

She threw the ball in the air as she stepped out of the boundary rope only to jump back in, diving forward to complete the catch.

ODI skipper Mithali Raj and batting great Sachin Tendulkar lauded the stunning effort put by Harleen during the catch, the video of which has gone viral since.

Talking about the contribution of the fielding coach, Harmanpreet said: "Abhay sir has been with us for quite some time, his little awareness makes you a better player. That is being refleted in our fielding.

"Earlier also, we used to make a lot of effort but the little adjustments that he has done with our fielding, the individual sessions that he has taken with the players that have helped.

"The most important point was he judged every player where it can do better fielding, so we are getting the results day by day from the effort that we have put in, which is a great positive."  

Sharma is into his second full series with the women's team following the home series against South Africa in March.

 India, however, has lost yet another match, going down by 18 runs in the first T20I.

Asked what would be the approach in the next two T20Is, she said: "We always play to win, unfortunately, we lost a few wickets... so the approach will be the same. The wicket is good to bat on, so if we bat first we can score 10-15 runs extra, but the next two games the approach will remain the same." — With PTI

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