Harmanpreet decided to hit sixes to avoid running because of cramps

For an ordinary cricketer, battling unbearable stomach cramp could well mean retiring to the cooler confines of the dressing room but if it is Harmanpreet Kaur, she would just hit eight sixes in order to avoid running.

What do you when you have a back problem on the eve of your team’s opening match of the World Cup, which stays overnight and even starts giving you cramps all over your body hours before the toss? You obviously sit out. But not when you are Harmanpreet Kaur, the captain of the Indian women’s team.  You get out there, take your time, asses the situation, battle your cramps and start hitting the big sixes to avoid running and in the process become the first Indian woman to score a hundred in a T20I to lead your side to 34-run victory.

Harmanpreet Kaur was not supposed to play India’s opening match against New Zealand. She had back issues and even a fever when she arrived at the stadium. However, none of it stopped her from playing one of the best T20 knocks in women’s cricket. She did need the assistance of the physio early into her innings when she broke down because of cramps after she had just broken the shackles by hitting two towering sixes but that was it. Harmanpreet had decided that hitting sixes was her only way out. In the end, she hit eight of those, smashing her way to an unbeaten 103 off 51 balls.

"When initially I was running twos, I got a little cramp, after that the physio gave me medicine, and a little bit it settled down," she said.

 "Then I thought instead of running too much, if I could I get more big shots because you run too much, you get more cramps. Then I told Jemi (Jemimah Rodrigues), 'if you give the strike to me, I can go for more big shots'," the skipper revealed.

Kaur, whose 171 against Australia in the ODI World Cup last year has become a stuff of legends, didn't know while batting that she had gone on to become first T20 centurion from the country.

 "I was not looking at how many runs I was getting, I was looking at how many we needed to win the game," Kaur said.

 "We knew they have really good batters, they have Sophie Devine and [Suzie] Bates, we knew if we scored just 150, we may not (win the game)."

 Kaur felt that it was a good batting track where a set batswoman could score big.

 "I knew it was a good batting track, if I settle down, I can get the runs, that's what I was thinking."

Her big-hitting prowess keeps bowlers all around the world on tenterhooks but the Indian skipper is hopeful that there might just be bigger and better things to come.

 "Yes, why not? Because every day is a learning day, today I learnt a lot."