Mumbai Indians skipper Harmanpreet Kaur is well-versed in facing the most ferocious bowlers on the field. But when it comes to dealing with the tricky questions the pressers, she never backs off there as well. On Saturday, she came up with a smart and straightforward reply when she was asked about the shorter boundary in the tournament.
The inaugural edition of the WPL kicked off with the directive from the BCCI that the boundary limits should be brought in, five metres lesser than last month’s T20 World Cup to a maximum of 60 metres. The decision was to facilitate more high-scoring games and entertainment for the viewers.
However, both the venues of WPL 2023 – DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai and the Brabourne Stadium – witnessed boundaries being brought in as close as 42-44 metres, with plenty of batters making the most of the opportunity.
When the same thing was asked to Harmanpreet at the pre-match presser, she gave a simple answer, saying, “Hum logo ne thodi na rope lagaya hai. Jinhone rope lagaya hai aap unko poocho na. (We did not put the boundary ropes in place. You can ask whoever has done that),” and burst into laughter.
“It is not in our hands no? It is in the hands of the officials. You can talk to them,” Kaur added.
Harmanpreet further spoke about the importance of WPL in Indian women’s cricket and said just like the BBL in Australia, the Women’s Premier League will also serve as a platform to the uncapped players to flourish.
“WBBL played a big role in the development of cricket in their country and WPL is also going to have the same role for our cricket. The domestic players are going to get a lot of opportunities, many girls have done well as we have seen.
“We will start seeing the results in 2-3 years. I am confident that Indian talent is also going to do well like Australia are doing,” Harmanpreet said.
While playing in a big final will be uncharted waters for many uncapped and young Indian players from both the teams, Kaur will once again be leading a side against Lanning in a summit clash – a stage in which she has not had much success. But Kaur is confident of a strong show from Mumbai Indians on Sunday.
“This is a different scenario, our team is doing well and so is Meg Lanning’s team. Whatever happened is in the past and we cannot change that. We want to do well in the future,” she said.
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