Century of ODIs beckons Harmanpreet Kaur on Sunday

In her 100th T20 International, Harmanpreet Kaur made one and India lost to South Africa by 105 runs --- their heaviest defeat in the format. But since no Indian, man or woman, had played 100 T20Is it made Kaur’s achievement unique.

One of the most destructive batters in the women’s cricket ever --- few have forgotten her unbeaten 171 off 115 balls against Australia in the 2017 World Cup semi-final --- Kaur is on the brink of another milestone. On Sunday, one day prior to International Women’s Day, Kaur should make her 100th appearance in One-day Internationals (ODI), again against South Africa here. Her 99th game was in November 2019 against West Indies in North Sound.

The 31-year-old from Punjab has three ODI centuries. “For her, it’s just going to be a milestone reached and it’s a good achievement for Kaur,” said former India captain Anjum Chopra on Thursday.

“She (Kaur) is a regular one in both T20 and ODI and other leagues around the world and for her it is definitely a number achieved. Here, she would like to make it count when she steps on the ground for the first ODI,” said Chopra.

On Kaur’s dangerous style of hitting in T20 and ODI, Chopra said that the India T20 skipper has the calibre to hit the ball hard and has proved herself on a number of occasions.

“We have seen her bat and take the game away from the rivals. She has done it at the World Cup level twice, and she has been a very good striker of the ball,” said Chopra.

Making her ODI debut against Pakistan on March 7, 2009, all-rounder Kaur has 2372 runs to her name in the format with an average of 34.88. Her first T20I was against England at Taunton on January 11, 2009. Kaur has aggregated 2182 runs with one century and six half-centuries in T20Is.

Kaur, who hasn’t scored a half-century in any format in the last 10 matches since February 2020, has been India’s T20I captain since 2016. Her only century (103 off 51) in T20Is came against New Zealand at the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2018. It was also the first by an Indian woman at the World T20.