OTD: Harmanpreet Kaur played unstoppable innings to guide India into World Cup final

July 20, 2017, is not only significant for Indian women's cricket but for the entire women's cricket world. It was the day when Harmanpreet Kaur played a thunderous innings to outclass Australia and send India to the final of the ICC Women's World Cup.

Kaur, in this match at Derby, against Australia, played a 115-ball, unbeaten 171-run innings—back in those days, it was a rare display of batting in women's cricket. Australia was the defending champion, and they were one of the favorite contenders to claim the title for their strong squad on paper. To make the situation tougher for India, rain came to interrupt the important match. Over reduced. The 50-50 over match was reduced to a 42-over-a-side contest.

When Kaur came into the ground with a bat, India was in trouble, losing their openers Smriti Mandhana and Punam Raut within the 10th over of the first innings. Harmanpreet gradually increased the pace of her innings. Kaur struck the first fifty of the innings against 64 balls, the second off 26, and her third came facing only 17. During her unbeaten 171-run innings, the batter hammered 20 boundaries and seven over boundaries; the strike rate was 148.69. Batting first, India scored 281 for 4 wickets. 

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A couple of 50 plus innings from Australia were not enough to push India behind 

Elyse Villani's 75 and Alex Blackwell's 90-run innings kept Australia in the fight, but not till the end. The defending champions lost all of their wickets in 245 runs.

India won the match by 36 runs and moved to the final of the ICC Women's World Cup 2017. Without any doubts, Harmanpreet Kaur was the best performer of that match against Australia for her monstrous innings.