WC heartbreak to dream debut: Thakor's tale of perseverance

WHEN Smriti Mandhana informed Saima Thakor that she would be making her India debut the next day on the bus ride back to the hotel in Ahmedabad, the Mumbai pacer didn't feel anything for a brief while.

- GOMESH S

In fact, even as Renuka Thakur was teasing her saying that she would be up all night, Thakor brushed it all away with a smile. That is exactly what happened. With her mother and family having travelled to Ahmedabad to watch the three-match ODI series against New Zealand, Thakor dialled her elder sister in the middle of the night. "I just called her at 12 in the night and said, 'You take a flight now and get here the next day'," recalls Thakor in a conversation with this daily on the sidelines of Mumbai's win against Punjab in the senior women's T20 pre-quarterfinal in Mumbai.