When Harleen Deol's stunning catch went viral in United States
Ashwin Jangam
June 21, 2023
USA is doing everything to make sure that the game of cricket is getting flourished in their country. The introduction of Major Cricket League consisting stars like Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard are just the recent examples of it. Prior to this , around 2-3 years back they got talents from subcontinent to play in the minor of league which happened in their country.
They are really trying from past 3-4 years to inculcate the gentlemen's game in their sporting culture. And in an attempt to do so, they were trying to show some great visuals from all the departments of cricket, but nothing worked for them. Finally, one of those clips went viral in the US and was loved for the athleticism the viewers witnessed. The viral clip was of the magical catch taken by Harleen Deol in 2021.
On 10 July, 2021 ,only a handful of Indians were lucky to witness this phenomenal catch in late night. So here's what happened on that day. In the penultimate over, when Amy Jones hit a delivery to Long off, it went high enough looking to go for a six. But Harleen had different plans. She leaped high, caught the ball, threw it higher before crossing the boundary line, and then leaped forward a full-length dive to grab the ball, pulling out the best catch of women's cricket history. As eye pleasing as it could get, it looked like time had stopped for a moment to witness the superhuman effort from Harleen.
The catch was so amazing that even Honourable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi tweeted about the catch congratulating the stalwart. Wishes poured from all over the world. And most of the Indians, got to Know about this beauty in the morning when the clips of the stunning catch went viral for all the right reasons. And therefore the cricket lovers in US decided to share this video, to check if this one will be loved by the viewers, or will it still be an unsuccessful attempt to do so. However, the crazy reactions from United States citizens showed that they loved the clip as it was most trending clips in US the day it was shared.
Such was the impact of the catch. When asked about the catch, Harleen said "I knew it was going to be tough, but still I knew there was a chance, which I wanted to capitalise. Even though there is hardly any chance for a catch, I will always go for it. That's something my coach has taught me". When asked about it to her coach the coach said that initially she was scared of standing near to batters while fielding, but when her fears were gone, she was undoubtedly the best fielder.
Harleen Deol, who is an all-rounder has great contributions with the bat, but she is an even better fielder, something which is missing in most of Indian players. She has greatly contributed to her domestic team scoring truckload of runs. Once she scored 112 alone in a match where target was 144 runs. However, she has not got enough chances for Women in Blue, but when she'll get those well deserved chances, she'll get to prove her mettle. But even though her appearances are lesser, the world knows her, for her superhuman catch, and rightly so. On the occasion of her birthday, I wish her many more years of cricket and wish to see her inspiring many others by her on-field performances.