Harmanpreet's 6 gives India title ~ Andheri Railway station and Sune Luus !

Andheri railway station serves the Western line and Harbour lines of the Mumbai Suburban Railway. The station also inter-connects the Line 1 of the Andheri metro station. Andheri station first came under prominence after the development of Salsette-Trombay Railway services in 1928 by the British Empire of India during the pre-independence period.

16 off the last over would be a daunting enough challenge even in a Twenty20 chase. Sixteen an over for the final three overs is something else entirely. And yet at Simonds Stadium, Geelong, Victoria,  Australia's captain, Aaron Finch, said he felt that while Asela Gunaratne remained at the crease, Sri Lanka still had a chance of achieving their goal, an assessment that turned out to be accurate, to the delight of thousands of Sri Lankan fans at Geelong's Kardinia Oval. Gunaratne took 12 off James Faulkner, then 22 off Moises Henriques, and the 14 that Sri Lanka then needed off the final over from Andrew Tye were completed when Gunaratne crunched the last ball over cover for four. After that innings – it was apparent that he will be featured in IPL and Mumbai Indians picked him for Rs. 30 lakhs !

In the British media, the big story of was not that of  three Associate cricketers have been picked in the competition - two from Afghanistan and one from the UAE; it was that of a few England players: Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, and Tymal Mills. Stokes may not have fond memories of T20s in India, but as now the highest-paid import in the IPL, he will have a couple of million reasons to put those aside. .. .. .. and in Srilanka, Proteas all-rounder Sune Luus  was named the player of the tournament – are you following that ?

At P Sara Oval, Colombo, India required 8 off the last two balls, stand-in captain Harmanpreet Kaur struck Marcia Letsoalo over midwicket for a six and then took two off the last ball to secure the title. India's chase of 245 boiled down to nine needed off the last over after they lost a flurry of wickets. Harmanpreet dragged the first ball, a slower one, to deep midwicket and aimed for a double, but Poonam Yadav was run out at the non-striker's end for 7 off 15 balls. Letsoalo then sent down three successive dots to tip the game in South Africa's favour. Harmanpreet, though, snatched victory to ensure India finished the tournament unbeaten. Rajeshwari Gayekward, the No.11, who hung on with Harmanpreet, was earlier impressive with the ball. Her left-arm spin complemented Shikha Pandey's pace; their combined returns of 5 for 92 helped India dismiss South Africa for 244.

In an earlier match, Ekta Bisht picked up an amazing match haul of 10-7-8-5 as India bowled out Pakistan for 67 to register a seven-wicket win in the ICC Women’s World Cup qualifier. Pakistan’s score was their 10th lowest in ODIs, having once being bowled out for 23 against Australia in 1997 in Melbourne. Virender Sehwag, the former dashing India opener,  was quick to congratulate the India Women on their achievement.

Four teams — Australia, England, New Zealand, and West Indies —  earned automatic qualification for the eight-team event after finishing in the top four of the ICC Women's Championship in October last year. The bottom four (India, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) competed  with Bangladesh, Ireland, Zimbabwe, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and Scotland.  The 2017 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier was an international women's cricket tournament that was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 7 to 21 February 2017. The final was contested between India and South Africa, with India winning by 1 wicket.  Along with the two finalists, both Sri Lanka and Pakistan have qualified for the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup.  The  four qualifiers for the Cricket World Cup, Bangladesh and Ireland kept their ODI status until 2021 by virtue of them reaching the Super Six stage of the tournament.

Back home about Andheri Railway station in this post – the  Railway Protection Force (RPF) were bowled over by Harmeet Singh Baddhan. Midday reports that the former IPL player and Under-19 World Cup bowler got away with endangering the lives of commuters at Andheri railway station, when he drove his car onto the platform last morning. Instead of sending him for an alcohol blood test — as is the norm — the RPF relied on the most unreliable test of all: his body language post incident.  Around 7.15 am, Baddhan drove his Hyundai Verna onto platform 1 of Andheri station as amused and frightened commuters made way for it. He apparently slammed the brakes only when he spotted an escalator. He told the Andheri RPF that had been misguided by a passer-by and mistakenly entered the platform. He claimed that he had tried to reverse the car and head out on realising his folly, but was stopped by commuters.

Singh was booked for endangering safety of passengers, obstructing the running of a train, destroying railway property and other relevant provisions of the Railway Act. “Singh said that he had dropped a friend in Bandra and was driving back home when he took a wrong turn and turned into the entrance to the railway station opposite McDonald’s restaurant,” said an official of  Railway Protection Force, Andheri.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

21^st Feb 2017