'Phenomenal' - Prime Minister Narendra Modi praises Harleen Deol on a brilliant catch

Appreciation seems not to stop for young India player Harleen Deol who pulled off an absolute stunner near the boundary rope to send England wicketkeeper-batter Amy Jones back to the pavilion. The outstanding effort from the 23-year-old at long-off, was due to her presence of mind at the last moment and a last-minute dive just to take the catch in time. It was a perfect jugglery act.

England opening batter Danni Wyatt, who witnessed the action live, was seen clapping when Deol completed the catch. Former legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar too was in awe of the all-rounder’s brilliance in the field and named it “the catch of the year” on Twitter. Apart from him, the likes of VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, and Isa Guha were also seen lauding Deol’s on-field stunner.

Now, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, too jumped into the bandwagon and posted about her brilliant catch on his Instagram story. He wrote, “Phenomenal, well done.” Although England won the first of the three-match T20I series, Deol took the cherry after her heroic effort on the field.

Harmanpreet Kaur credits fielding coach Abhay Sharma

When everyone was lauding Deol’s efforts for taking the stunner, India women’s T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur credited fielding coach Abhay Sharma for bringing in the change with regards to fielding. Not only Kaur, but Mithali Raj too gave Sharma the credit for making the little adjustments while training.

“When you play a team game, you need momentum and it can come from any member of the team. When I took the catch, it created a sort of energy in the team and then Harleen took a brilliant catch. So to create that energy, you need to take some extra effort,” Harmanpreet said during the virtual press conference.

“Throughout the game, our ground fielding was good, we saved a lot of runs, and we also took some brilliant catches. So I think it is a great sign that our fielding has improved a lot.”

India did show signs of improvement in the first T20I, wherein the batters tried to play with intent in a rain-marred game. India will take on England in the second T20I on Sunday, July 11.