On This Day: The Indian captain celebrates her birthday on the day of the big final (8th March)

India stormed into the final of Women T20 World Cup after their semi-final against England was washed out on 5th March. In the tournament opener, India defeated Australia by 17 runs. They managed to win this game after scoring just 132 runs. Their next target was Bangladesh. India won the game against them by 18 runs. India then defeated New Zealand in their third match of the tournament. This win came after they scored just 133 runs. New Zealand lost the game by 3 runs. India then crushed Sri Lanka by seven wickets.

There were no reserve days in this World Cup till the final. India made it into the final due to their performance in group stage matches. India qualified for the finals of the T20 World Cup for the first time and will go against defending champions Australia in the final on 8th March.

On this day, Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur was born in Moga, Punjab. A win in the finals would surely be the biggest birthday gift of her life.

She made a debut for India at the age of 20 in the ODI World Cup of 2009 against Pakistan. In the very same year, she made her T20 debut against England in the T20 World Cup. Her records in ICC events shows how much she loves to perform at the biggest stage of all. She scored 171* off just 115 balls against Australia in the semi-final of the 2017 ODI World Cup. This is the highest score in a knockout game of a World Cup.

Harmanpreet Kaur in WBBL

In 2017 she was awarded a place in ICC's Women T20I Team of the Year. She is the first Indian player to be selected in the foreign T20 league.

Also see – MI 2020 team

She plays for Sydney Thunder in the Women's Big Bash League. Sydney Thunder was the inaugural champion of the tournament. Kaur was selected as the Player of the Tournament by her team. She then became the first Indian player to play in England Women's Cricket League. There she plays for Surrey Stars. She was born on International Women's Day. Kaur shares her birthday with New Zealand's Ross Taylor and Zimbabwe's Charles Coventry.

Ross Taylor

Ross Taylor recently became the first player of the world to feature in 100 international appearances in all three formats of the game.

Charles Coventry

Coventry came into the spotlight when he equaled Saeed Anwar's record for the highest individual score in ODIs of 194 runs. This was later broken by Sachin Tendulkar.