Indian women cricket team gained massive popularity on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook as they recorded their fourth win on the trot after beating Sri Lankan women team in the ongoing ICC Women’s World Cup in England on July 5. Mithali Raj and Co. defended a respectable 232/8 total by restricting the island nation to 216 for 7. With this win, Indian eves took a giant stride towards clinching a semi-final spot. Besides Sri Lanka, Indian team has defeated Pakistan, West Indies and England in the ongoing tournament.
According to ANI, following their record winning streak in the ICC Women’s World Cup, the Indian skipper Mithali Raj, who had only 3000 followers on Twitter before the start of the tournament, now has over 5,000 followers. Similarly, Smriti Mandhana, one of the centurions in the competition, has now a follower base of around 30,000. Kaur is third in the list among Indians with around 20,000 followers.
Reacting to the sudden increase in fan base, cricketer Harmanpreet Kaur, the first Indian to be picked up for the Women’s Big Bash League last year, said: “We are bindaas (cool). We knew that this will happen. Our seniors always told us that when you do well, the media and people will come to you on their own. So we are prepared; it is not that we have not seen or heard this attention.”
_ Celebration selfie for @BCCIWomen who made it 4_ from 4_! #WWC17 pic.twitter.com/BmugvxqUtq
— ICC (@ICC) July 6, 2017
Earlier, brilliant all-round performance helped India beat Sri Lanka by 16 runs in a group stage match. Batting first after winning the toss, Indian women cricketers managed to put a decent 232/8 on board, thanks to Deepti Sharma (78) and skipper Mithali Raj (53).
In reply, Sri Lanka never looked in the contention as they lost their wickets at regular intervals.
WATCH highlights of India's fourth consecutive win in #WWC17 #SLvIND – https://t.co/yTS40CMomI
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) July 6, 2017
However, Chamari Atapattu (25), Dilani Manodara (37) and Shashikala Siriwardene (61) displayed some good batting, but Indian bowlers kept holding their nerves and soon overpowered them.
