Kohli, Sachin, Kapil, Rohit bowled over

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 semifinal 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".

Kaur magnificent knock also impressed Indian opener Rohit Sharma, the only player to have scored two double hundreds in the history of one-day cricket.

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

All-rounder Kaur's scintillating 115-ball unbeaten 171 helped India thrash Australia by 36 runs in the semifinal and set their date with hosts England in Sunday's final at the Lord's in London.

Electing to bat after winning the toss in a rain-shortened 42-overs-a-side semifinal, Kaur's magical knock helped India set a daunting 282-run target.

In reply, Australia could only make 245 against some disciplined bowling effort from the Indians.

This will be India's second World Cup final, having reached the summit-clash in 2005 where they lost to Australia at Centurion.

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.

Former 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."

The iconic Sachin Tendulkar was also in awe of Kaur. "Incredible batting by @ImHarmanpreet! Come on India- Let's go out and win the second half of the game as well. #AUSvIND #WWC17 #WomenInBlue," wrote Tendulkar after the first innings.

Brief Scores: Indian women 281/4 (Harmanpreet Kaur 171 not out, Mithali Raj 36, Deepti Sharma 25, Ashleigh Gardner 1/43) beat Australia women 245 (Alex Blackwell 90, Elyse Villani 75, Ellyse Perry 38, Deepti Sharma 3/59, Jhulan Goswami 2/35, Shikha Pandey 2/17) by 36 runs.

Source: Khaleej Times