Kohli, Shastri hail Harmanpreet's ton in WWC semis

Indian men's team captain Virat Kohli and newly-appointed head coach Ravi Shastri led Twitter users in congratulating all-rounder Harmanpreet Kaur, who on Thursday blasted an unbeaten 171 off only 115 deliveries to help India post a massive 281/4 in a rain-shortened 42-overs-a-side Women's World Cup semi-final against Australia at Derby.

"Take a bow!! "Harmanpreet Kaur" ur magical innings made our day. Thanks for this memorable ride. India on the stronger side now," posted Kohli, who is on national duty in Sri Lanka.

Addressing Kaur as a "rockstar", former India all-rounder Shastri posted: "Harmanpreet you rockstar. Simply awesome".

One of the key members of the current India set-up, opener Rohit Sharma hopes her knock turns out to be a match-winning one to help the Indian eves reach their second World Cup final.

"That's brutal power by @ImHarmanpreet! Hope it turns out to be a match winning knock. Some serious hitting there," Rohit wrote.

Former India opener Virender Sehwag also hailed Kaur's effort, terming it as an innings of a lifetime.

"An Innings of a lifetime, Harmanpreet Kaur. What wonderful clean hitting. More than 60 per cent of India's runs. Fan! Over to the Bowlers now," Sehwag tweeted.

Ex-India batsman Mohammed Kaif called her effort as one of the all time great innings in World Cups.

"281 in 42overs is a wonderful score & Harmanpreet Kaur has just played one of the all time great Innings in any WC match. What a joy," Kaif wrote.

Harbhajan Singh also praised her efforts, posting: "Raging performance by @ImHarmanpreet...way to go.."

Veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel wrote: "Stand up and applaud @ImHarmanpreet ...what an inning."

--IANS

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