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Follow UsAvengers Infinity War is remembered amongst Marvel’s fanatical fans for two reasons - one, for the devastating climax scene where we see a physical manifestation of “Dust thou art to dust returnest”, and secondly, the scene where Thor enters the Battle of Wakanda.
Talking about the latter, the Avengers were on the verge of losing the war against the titan Thanos, but Thor arrived with a new weapon forged from the heart of a dying star, a walking tree and a talking Racoon. As he landed on the ground, he was surrounded by lightning bolts and thunderous sounds of war.
That’s when the audience knew that Thor was legit a God. The God of Thunder.
Thor slashed through the enemies like a ninja slicing cucumbers, but when it came to Thanos, he failed to go for his head, went for his heart, and ended up losing the war and much more.
That’s all fiction. But today, the reality felt more fictitious than walking trees and talking raccoons.
No thunder or lightning followed the vicissitude of incredulous events at the Kotla. But guess what?
There was a Thor in Delhi today. She didn’t have a weapon forged from the heart of a dying star. However, she had a flat but chunky piece of wood in her hand, no more than 38 inches long, and 4.25 inches wide.
What followed was the thunderous sound made by the wooden bat as it met the leather ball, and a bolt of electric hitting that won her team a game they had no business winning.
You see, Harmanpreet ‘Thor’ had arrived, and unlike the God that failed, she went straight for the head.
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Shabnam Shakil, the Gujarat Giants' youngster who was also a part of India’s victorious Under-19 World Cup squad, had gone for 18 runs in the 17th over. However, the Mumbai Indians still needed 47 runs in just three overs.
They needed sixes, and they needed lots of them.
“I actually used my brother’s technique while chasing today. Whenever we two play cricket at home, he always counts how many sixes are needed and how many balls are left. So when Amelia [Kerr] came to bat, we needed 9 sixes. So I told her we need 9 sixes in 24 balls,” Harmanpreet told the official Hindi broadcasters after the game while talking about her chasing strategy.
The plan was right. After all, that was how the big-hitting West Indian men changed the way we looked at T20 cricket batting. However, an approach like this in women’s cricket is unheard of, as power-hitting is still an underdeveloped aspect of the game.
But not for Harmanpreet Kaur. Her 171* against Australia in the 2017 ODI World Cup semi-final had already shown the world what the megastar from Moga is capable of when it comes to hitting sixes.
From here on, it was solely Harmanpreet’s game. No batter left in the MI dugout could have pulled it off.
And that’s when the Indian skipper decided to turn into a goddess and punish the mortal Giants for giving her absolute dollies to hit.
Sneh Rana knew how belligerent Harman is against off-spinners, even if she might not know that she strikes at 154.9 against them in the WPL. She had seen her do that while enjoying each shot from the Indian dugout. This time, she was the one who was treated like a vermin by the ‘HarMonster’.
The first ball of the 17th was tossed up on the leg stump with some good air on it. Rana shouldn’t have done that. Harmanpreet didn’t need a Mjolnir to hammer that. She just danced down the track, did her thing, and the ball went to the straight boundary at lightning speed.
43 needed off 17.
The next one was a 'hit me' full toss, but Rana put her body behind it and stopped it. No runs scored.
43 needed off 16.
The sight of Harmanpreet must have already defeated Rana. Because otherwise, there was no reason for her to follow up with a gentle toss-up outside off. Harman danced down and lofted it again. There is no mercy for such deliveries in the Harmanpreet Penal Code.
37 needed off 15.
Rana was just done at this point. I guess she wanted to go home because she bowled a full toss next. The outcome was announced before the ball even reached the bat - a boundary!
33 needed off 14.
It was like watching a sad video on repeat for sadistic pleasure if you were a Gujarat fan. The next ball was again a full toss, and it was again a four.
29 needed off 13.
Thankfully the next one wasn’t a full toss. But Harman, at that point, had not only tasted blood, she had turned into a cannibal.
Rana pushed the last one meekly outside, and the Thor from Punjab smoked it for a six, putting a lid over a 24 run over.
Just 23 was needed off 12 balls.
The result was a formality after what had happened in the Rana over. Harman and Amelia Kerr took 10 runs off Tanuja Kanwer's 19th over, and when Ashleigh Gardner came to bowl the 20th and 13 runs were needed in the last over, Harman hit a 90-metre six on the first ball itself. The remaining seven runs came easily in the next four balls.
From 20(21) at one point in her innings, Harman had scored 75 runs on the next 27 deliveries. Her 95* off 48 has to be amongst the best innings played in the WPL till now. Who would have believed after watching today's knock that she was massively struggling in the last T20I series she played!
The HarMonster insinuated a carnage that consumed Gujarat. Such was the heat, that the sprinklers started on their own at the Kotla.
After all, why wouldn’t they? There was thunder. There was lightning. So there had to be water.
Harmanpreet ‘Thor’ had arrived, and she had gone straight for the head.
