That last ball six girl!

Okay, let’s rewind a bit. It is 2016. Gautam Gambhir is the star attraction at Wayanad’s Krishnagiri Stadium as Delhi arrive to play Kerala in a Ranji Trophy game. There’s this young girl in the nets helping around with the team’s training sessions.

“So Gautam Gambhir sir had to come to my home ground to play a Ranji Trophy match. One day, when he was training, I went to help. He was hitting it very hard and through the gaps. He hit two or three balls to me and I easily caught it. Sir noticed my fielding. After the session, I got a chance to interact with sir. He asked me, ‘are you a rightie or a leftie’. I said I was a rightie. He said, ‘I have two pairs of gloves, but I am a leftie. But I’ll give you something’. I was really surprised with his gesture and I told all my friends about this,” Sajana Sajeevan says in an exclusive chat with mumbaiindians.com.

“I was really excited. I was waiting. I kept watching him. He was roaming here and there and I was just waiting for him to call me. He came the next day morning and he called out, ‘Sajana’. I was like, ‘wow, Gautam sir knows my name’. He gave me his bat in front of a big crowd and in front of all my friends. It was an amazing feeling. After that I had an under-23 domestic season. I scored the fastest century in that tournament off just 84 balls with that bat. It became a great motivation for me to take cricket forward. I realized that if you have good cricketing equipments, you can put up a great performance. It was one of the best moments I my cricket life.”

Fast forward some eight years. This girl is Kerala’s captain in the domestic circuit. She wasn’t picked up in the WPL auction for the 2023 season. Mumbai Indians snap her up at her base price for in 2024. She’s getting a chance to share the dressing room and be in close quarter with someone she’s modelled her game on all her life. It is like the Gambhir moment all over again.

“Harman di (Harmapreet Kaur) is not just a player for me. She is my idol, role model, everything,” she says.

“One of my favourite things is watching Harman di’s batting, watching the way she handles pressure. There are so many things about her, her ability to face any ball with courage, her decision making, her courage. I want to bring all these things into my game. If we can handle things in any situation without stress, we’ll have success. That’s what I am trying to do right now.”

Onto that six now.  From wilderness to a household name. One ball, the only one that Sajana got to face in the first game of the 2024 WPL season against the Delhi Capitals, when Mumbai Indians needed five to win off the last ball of the innings, was tonked way over long-on. Quite the announcement, that!

“Nobody knew me before that day. These days people recognize me and it’s all thanks to Mumbai Indians and the WPL.”