In a competitive sports market, the Women’s Premier League (WPL) is up against with the Ranchi Test match for newsprint. With India 2-1 ahead and after an intense first day’s action, you needed something spectacular from the inaugural WPL encounter to upstage the Test match. And with Sajana Sajeevan, you got exactly that. With five needed off the last ball, and an uncapped Indian batter against a seasoned pro in Alice Capsey. What were the chances that she would hit it for a six? Maybe one in hundred? And yet, that was what she did. In doing so, she created a Brendon McCullum-type moment for the WPL.
In the first-ever IPL match in 2008, it was McCullum. In 2024, it was Sajana. Yes, Harmanpreet Kaur was player of the match. Yastika Bhatia was brilliant. Amelia Kerr played a handy knock, but truth be told, it had all boiled down to that one ball and one shot.
Had Sajana failed, no one would have faulted her. She was expected to fail. The daughter of a rickshaw driver who is proud of her tribal roots in Kerala’s Wayanad, Sajana has had to scrap for pretty much everything in her 29 years. The stakes were firmly against her. And yet, much like a breath of fresh air, she danced down the track and lofted Capsey over long-on for a six. Sajana had arrived, and in a second, the WPL had left its mark.
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She was trending all night, and even this morning, and will continue to do so for some time today. It was a shot of destiny from an almost-anonymous cricketer whom Gautam Gambhir had gifted a bat to eight years ago. Five years after leading a Kerala U-23 side to a national title, this was her ticket to stardom. For the tournament, it was the start that it needed.
In an evening that saw the best of Bollywood take centre stage in Bengaluru, and where the stars of the women’s game – Harmanpreet, Capsey, Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver, Marizanne Kapp and others – were vying for the limelight, who would have thought it would be Sajana that would emerge the hero? In all honesty, how many fans had heard of Sajana ahead of the contest?
But that’s what the WPL and the IPL is all about. It makes stars and fulfils dreams. It gives wings to aspirations and, in doing so, enriches the sport. With that one shot, Sajana has matured. She will no longer feel overawed when she faces up to an international star. She knows that across the 22 yards, it is all equal. Stature doesn’t matter, talent does. That one ball can make all the difference, and that one six thrust her into the national spotlight in an instant.
In 2008, no one really knew whether the IPL would take off. No one had an idea what it was all about. All it took was one innings. Despite all the Bollywood and the cheerleaders, it was McCullum and his 158 that assumed centre stage. And even after all these years, that’s what we remember. It is much the same with Sajana. At a time when the brand needed the push, she provided it. The shot wasn’t just a six. It could be the making of WPL season two, and of Sajana as a star.
Things can only get better for the tournament from here on, the Ranchi Test notwithstanding. No mean feat for a young uncapped Indian player. That’s why we chase our goals, and that’s why the great Sachin Tendulkar always says that dreams do come true. For Sajana and the thousands of fans of the WPL, they did last night in Bengaluru.
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