Mumbai Indians' Harmanpreet Kaur set the Women's Premier League 2023 on fire with her cracking batting in the opener against Gujarat Giants at the DY Patil Stadium on Saturday (March 4). The WPL 2023 couldn't have got a better start as Harmanpreet brought the first half century of the season. Riding on her blistering 65 off 30 Harmanpreet helped MI to post a colossal total of 207/5.
After the dismissal of Nat Sciver-Brunt in the ninth over, Kaur started her blitzkrieg, which was decorated with 14 fours, before getting out in the 17th over by Sneh Rana. The 33-year-old stiched 89 runs in 42 deliveries with Amelia Kerr for the third wicket, propelling Mumbai to finish at 207 after 20 overs.
The Indian captain got down to business quickly. As Kaur continued her big-hitting form, she smashed seven consecutive fours against Monica Patel and Ashleigh Gardner. She hit four boundaries in Patel's over, before adding three more against the Australian all-rounder.
Here's the video..
Mumbai roped in Harmanpreet for a whopping sum of Rs 1.80 cr in the WPL auction as they spent 15 per cent of the total auction purse on her.
Riding on her stunning knock, in a unique record Harmanpreet emulated a rare feat of Chris Gayle from the 2011 Indian Premier League (IPL). Gayle had achieved the same against the Kerala Tuskers in 2011 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. All of Gayle's hits had come in the famous 37-run victory over rookie pacer Prasanth Parameswaran. However, Gayle had hit four sixes and three boundaries. Suresh Raina had done the same during the 2014 IPL Qualifier 2 between Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings.He smashed two sixes and five fours in an over to Parvinder Awana.
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