Farewell To Cricket: Indian women gear up for memorable Lord's dance for legendary Jhulan
London (PTI): Jhulan Goswami, a name synonymous with 'fast bowling' in women's cricket, will walk into her cricketing sunset at the Lord's on Saturday and the Indian team will strive to make it a memorable swansong for her by completing a historic ODI series clean sweep on English soil, here.
Playing one game at Lord's is an ultimate dream for a cricketer.
Scoring a hundred or taking a five-for is a different high but bidding adieu to the game following an illustrious career at the 'Mecca of Cricket' is only reserved for a few chosen ones.
Sunil Gavaskar (although he played his last first-class game there) didn't get that opportunity. Neither did a Sachin Tendulkar or a Brian Lara or a Glenn McGrath got that opportunity to step down the stairs of the hallowed Long Room on their final playing day.
Even Goswami's colleague for nearly 20 years, Mithali Raj, couldn't retire from a cricket field.
But call it destiny or design, Goswami's last hurrah is happening at Lord's.
There couldn't have been a more iconic setting as the strapping 5 feet 11 inch lady walks her way through that Long Room where the MCC's 'suits' will stand up and her teammates will give her a 'Guard of Honour' when she will enter the ground.
A series already won with an unassailable 2-0 lead, Harmanpreet Kaur and her team would leave no stone unturned to make it a fitting farewell for one of the 'poster girls' of Indian cricket.
Having lost the T20I series, India did extremely well against a depleted England side in the two games where they dominated while chasing as well as while setting the target.
If the biggest gain is skipper Harmanpreet getting her touch and free-flowing self back with innings of 74 not out and 143 not out, the worry has been Shafali Verma's patchy form throughout the tour.
Harleen Deol has done well to establish herself as a dependable middle-order batter but with Goswami's retirement, the seam attack comprising Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur and Pooja Vastrakar would need to step-up a lot more.
As far as England is concerned, the absence of skipper Heather Knight (due to injury) and star all-rounder Nat Sciver (mental health break) impacted the team's balance hugely.
Goswami -- Impact then and now
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The last time Indian women won an ODI series in England was way back in 1999 when Goswami hadn't made her international debut.
So as she appears for her 204th and last game, Indian team's revered "Jhulu Di" would know that she is a contented soul.
May be an ICC silverware (she had two shots at that in 2005 and 2017 when India played final) would have looked nice but sometimes some things are not meant to be.
When she makes her bowling mark for one last time, and strides up that Lord's slope to add to his 353 international wickets (across formats), she might remember a lot of things.
From a small town Chakdah in remote West Bengal to winning 'ICC Woman Cricketer of The Year' and shouldering the Indian pace attack for 20 years, you can only doff your hat to her.
It wasn't an easy journey to take the first local train to Kolkata and start with routines at North Kolkata's Shradhhananda Park (a small non-descript ground).
Even after her India debut, when she would go back home, from Chakdah station, she would be seen sitting in an open Van Rickshaw.
When she had first played for India, Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh were not even born and Jemimah Rodrigues was perhaps in her nappies.
Harmanpreet was still a dreamy-eyed Moga girl, who wanted to play cricket.
When she is retiring, Harmanpreet is her captain and Shafali, Jemimah, Richa and Yastika Bhatia are her teammates.
And yes, the IPL for women is about to start, women cricketers have central contracts and most of them are driving Mercedes, BMWs and Audis, with the kind of money that has come in.
She has been a bridge between the struggles of travelling in second class compartments, living in dormitories and youth hostels with common washrooms to business class travels and stay at swanky five-stars with proper central contracts and financial security.
In between, a lot of water has flown through both Hooghly and Thames as she went on her journey undeterred.
The delivery to Meg Lanning in the semi-final of the 2017 World Cup will be one such piece of cricketing action that you would want.
As India aim for a 3-0 clean sweep after a couple of dominant shows, one can assure that there will be no let up in her intensity.
There won't be another Jhulan Goswami.
Teams (from):
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Sabbineni Meghana, Deepti Sharma, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana, Renuka Thakur, Meghna Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Harleen Deol, Dayalan Hemalatha, Simran Dil Bahadur, Jhulan Goswami, Taniyaa Bhatia and Jemimah Rodrigues.
England: Amy Jones (c and wk), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Freya Davies, Alice Davidson-Richards, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Eclestone, Freya Kemp, Issy Wong and Danni Wyatt.
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Class 10 admit cards accompanied by pass certificates can be used as ID: SC in West Bengal SIR
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday clarified that Class 10 admit card accompanied by pass certificate can be produced as supplementary documentation for identity verification in the ongoing SIR exercise in West Bengal.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi passed the order after senior advocate DS Naidu mentioned the matter.
The lawyer expressed concerns about whether such admit cards can be permitted to be a standalone identity document.
The top court said it has already directed that the admit card will only be a supplementary document.
"All documents mentioned in para 3(iii) of order dated February 24, 2026 which are not uploaded so far and received before February 15, shall be submitted by the Electoral Registration Officers, Assistant Electoral Registration Officers to the presiding judicial officers by tomorrow 5 PM.
"Similarly, para 3(iii)(c) is clarified to the effect that Madhyamik (Class 10) admit cards may be submitted along with pass certificate for the purpose of birth certificate and purposes of parentage," the bench said.
The apex court on Tuesday allowed the deployment of West Bengal civil judges, in addition to 250 district judges, and the requisitioning of judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha to handle 80 lakh claims and objections of those facing deletion from the electoral roll in the ongoing SIR exercise in the state.
It took note of a February 22 letter of Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujoy Paul that even if 250 district judges deployed in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise will take around 80 days to deal with the claims and objections of those put under logical discrepancy and unmapped categories.
The logical discrepancies in progeny linking with the 2002 voter list include instances of a mismatch in the parent's name and the age difference between a voter and his/her parent being less than 15 years or more than 50 years.
While issuing a slew of fresh directions, CJI Kant took note of the fact that even if each judicial officer deals with 250 claims and objections per day, the exercise will take around 80 days to conclude. The deadline for West Bengal SIR is February 28.
The bench permitted Chief Justice Paul to deploy civil judges from the senior and junior divisions with a minimum three-year experience to verify the claims and objections filed by the voters.
It asked the Calcutta High Court chief justice to request his Jharkhand and Odisha counterparts for requisition of judicial officers of similar ranks to deal with the situation.
