Three years ago, Harmanpreet Kaur played the greatest televised innings for India in the World Cup.

A lot of pieces have been written about it. Here is a personal recollection, so I may tend to get overboard.
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At the CricketCountry office, we were sure we would wrap things early that night. Australia had been terrific cricket. I had that sinking feeling when a fit Meg Lanning – who had been injured at different points of time during the World Cup – walked out to the toss.
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The match was reduced to 42 overs. Smriti Mandhana got out infuriatingly early. Punam Raut fell after a slow start. And Kaur, nursing a finger injury, walked out to join Mithali Raj.
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She picked out Megan Schutt first: a cover-drive, then a straight drive, for fours. India were 70/2 after 20 overs. 200, we thought. Maybe 220, if they batted really, really well.
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The floodgates opened with a slog-sweep off Kristin Beams. Jess Jonassen was lofted over her head for four. Schutt returned, and was swept the way one sweeps spinners. Four.
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By now I was finding a tough time remaining seated and all that. Too much was happening, but that also meant too much to handle. And I was supposed to stay neutral.
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Now Schutt attempted to get Kaur stumped down leg. Kaur missed, Healy made a mess, and Starc looked glum in the stands.

Then Beams bowled Raj. Deepti showed up. 101/3 in 25.
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Kaur now lofted Beams straight for six, then pulled her for four. Her fifty came in 64 balls. The last 25 had fetched 32.
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Then she swivelled around to dispatch Ellyse Perry over square-leg. Beams was driven past cover. Jonassen was lofted straight. She tried a comeback, firing one down leg, but Kaur somehow deflected it for four.
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I could not believe what I was watching. I knew why the frequency of WhatsApp messages were coming in by dozens – I had convinced too many people to tune in that night (they would not have otherwise) – but I chose to ignore.
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Kaur took 90 balls to reach a hundred. There was a mix-up, which resulted in Deepti getting a earful despite making it with a dive, which resulted in Harman fuming so much that she forgot to celebrate her own hundred.
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And she (probably) took it out on the hapless Australians. I later found out that she was cramping up as well.

185/3 in 35 overs. Seven to go.
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When Ashleigh Gardner came on to bowl, all Deepti needed to do was get out of the way with a single. The second ball soared over mid-wicket, the third over square-leg, the fourth over mid-off, I and there was a two somewhere.
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And in the dugout, Mithali Raj, Rumi's book forgotten, danced along with Veda Krishnamurthy till she realised the camera was on her.
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By now Kaur was clearly batting on willpower. The fitness was clearly not 100%. But she still hit Schutt out of the attack.
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Elyse Villani got Deepti, but only after Kaur had hit a six and a four. Two balls later Villani bowled outside off: the most brutal of slogs went past mid-wicket.

In the next over she reached 150 in 108 balls. By now she was positively limping, as good as batting on one leg.
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Jonassen's first ball was a full-toss. The second landed on the pitch. Both were hit for sixes. And as Veda joined in the fun, Jonassen fell apart.

India finished on 281/4 in 42 overs. The last 17 overs had produced 180. The last 6, a whopping 89.
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Kaur finished on 171 not out in 115 balls.

India won despite Alex Blackwell's threatening 56-ball 90.
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What was I doing all this while? Kaur had squeezed the neutrality out of me that night. We were celebrating, thousands of miles away from the scene of action as we celebrated an Indian win.
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For decades I had struggled to find a cricketing incident to take place on July 20. I wanted something to happen on my birthday.
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I share it with Maurice Leyland and Eric Rowan, outstanding cricketers with terrific careers but not quite brag-worthy: nobody I know has seen them bat, you see.
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Botham’s Headingley miracle of 1981 was more appealing, but I was too young for that, and the match was not telecast live in India anyway. I had hopes on Mohanty, but he let me down, and Naman Ojha, while a favourite, never made it really big.
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In 2017 at Derby, Harmanpreet Kaur gave me something cricketing to brag about on my birthday. The dinner was basic. There was no drinking water left for the last hour, I remember, which led to a splitting headache by the time I left.
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But for once, spending the birthday evening at work had been more than worth it.