Playing an international tournament after 364 days and hitting a quick 40 with the bat in ongoing India vs South Africa ODI series in Lucknow, Vice-Captain Harmanpreet Kaur entered the Elite 100 list in style thereby becoming the fifth Indian to have played 100 ODI matches.
Making her debut in the year 2009 at the age of 20, the all-rounder has brought laurels to her team ever since. She has scored a total of 2412 runs in her ODI career at an average of 34.95 with her best score being 171*. She has 3 ODI centuries and 11 Half-centuries to her name, having scored it in just 83 innings. She has excelled with the ball too as her career-best figures are seen as 2/16.
The Arjuna awardee and the Team India T20I captain hold the record for being the first cricketer for India (both men and women) to play 100 International matches. She became the first woman to score a ton in a Women’s T20 International match in the year 2018.
Most Matches by a 🇮🇳 Female Cricketer
210* – Mithali Raj
183* – Jhulan Goswami
127 – Anjum Chopra
116 – Amita Sharma
100* – Harmanpreet Kaur* still playing
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) March 8, 2021
She has also captained the Women’s ODI team in the year 2013 for the Bangladesh tour and went on to score her second ODI ton in the series. She ended that series with 2 wickets to her name and a total of 195 runs, which included a century and a half-century, in her bag.
Her magnificent 171* (115) came up against Australia in the 2017 World Cup semi-finals match. India’s performance at the 2017 world cup to date is all about praises as Indian women’s cricket took a huge leap post the World Cup. Harmanpreet’s 171* is also the second-highest score by an Indian batter, as the first one being Deepti Sharma’s score of 188.
Harman challenged all the odds and obstacles that came in her way to reach such a position in world cricket. Describing her journey to Femina during one of her interviews, Harman said that her only dream, since childhood, was to play cricket and no other thought passed her mind.
In her recent ODI against South Africa, Harmanpreet smashed a total of 6 fours in her 40 off 41 innings, taking the average to 97.56. As she was set on the field and hit the ball trying to go for an aerial shot, she was caught by Ismail on skipper Sune Luus’s ball.
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