A little over two months ago, Harmanpreet Kaur came to the crease with her side in trouble at 60/2 in the 10th over, chasing 147 in a T20 game. The setting was as familiar as it was unfamiliar. Familiar because it was on the same ground, North Sydney Oval, where she had announced herself on the world stage, in a global tournament, as one of the world’s young stars. Unfamiliar, because instead of wearing the India Blue, she was donning the lime green of the Sydney Thunder, for the first time ever.

By the 15th over her team had gone from just being in trouble to being waist deep in it: 88/4, which meant 60 runs to get in just five overs.

What happened next took Twitter by storm that night. Harmanpreet smashed an incredible 47 off 28 balls, remained unbeaten, and got her team to within touching distance of the target. Her knock included three sixes, one of which looked so good it should have been charged for causing excessive awe.

But she had launched too late. If you were lucky enough to watch it live, like I was, it was a treat; but it was not a win. Retweets on twitter are not points on the table.

The Thunder fell short by six runs.

On Tuesday, Harmanpreet Kaur came to the crease with her side in a bit of trouble at 148/3 in the 34th over, chasing 244 in a 50-over match. This was in Colombo, far removed from Sydney, and she was wearing the India Blue. India had a mountain to climb: the target was 11 runs more than their highest ever chase in history. And they had to do it without their best ever batter.

Mithali Raj had to miss the final due to a hamstring niggle she picked up in the previous game against Pakistan. So the captaincy duties fell to Harmanpreet Kaur. The pressure, the expectations, even the stakes could not have been higher. This was an ICC event final after all, something India had never won.

A month ago, Harmanpreet Kaur did it again. She played the kind of innings that made jaws drop. Not just drop, actually. More like end up somewhere near your feet.

Towards the fag end of the WBBL, at the WACA, she hit 64 off 37 balls. With six sixes. That’s two more than the entire opposition team hit, and six more than any of her teammates. Three of those came in the space of four balls. Against the team with the best pace attack in the tournament. She wasn’t cutting down the required run rate. She was taking a wrecking ball to it.

But once again, she had launched too late. Once again she remained unbeaten, but her partners kept getting out. And her side still lost.

India were cruising. After the game, the South Africa skipper Dane van Neikerk said that they were running away with the game at one point. That point was when Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy were batting. A 38-run partnership in 39 balls. Exactly at the rate required. Easy peasy.

But cricket is a funny game. Veda guided a yorker into the keepers gloves. Shikha Pandey struck a couple of lusty blows before running herself out, so hypnotised by the ball she didn’t see her partner running towards her. Another perfect yorker, from Ayabonga Khakha, sent Devika Vaidya back first ball. Two balls later, yet another yorker, this time from Shabnim Ismail, sent Sushma Verma back for another golden duck. The last of India’s regular batters was gone.

209/4 became 211/7. Thirty four to get in just over five overs. Just three wickets in hand, and Harmanpreet was running out of partners again.

When Smriti Mandhana tore a ligament in her knee in the dying stages of WBBL, it was a big blow for India. When I heard that she was officially ruled out of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers, I immediately kept my ears open for negative feedback.

The BCCI had taken a punt by allowing its female players to feature in foreign leagues. They didn’t need to. They could have very well just hidden behind the blanket policy they use for men. At the most, it would have invited some nasty pieces from journalists. But since when did the BCCI care about that.

Instead, for once, they did the sensible thing. They allowed female players to play in leagues like the WBBL. But when Mandhana injured her knee, I waited for the whispers to creep around, like a cynical, insidious fog: ‘This is what happens when we send our players abroad. Now the national team will suffer’, and all that baseless jazz.

When Harmanpreet struggled in the early stages of the World Cup Qualifiers, I expected those whispers again. She seemed to still be playing for Australian conditions, having spent two months on the fast-paced wickets. She had only 71 runs in four innings against the ODI teams. The Indian T20 captain seemed to, ironically, be playing like a callow Australian might when batting in the subcontinent.

India’s No. 9 was Ekta Bisht, whose offence proved better than her defence. After swatting a ball over cover for four, she missed a straight one and left India eight down. Still 22 runs adrift, with 26 balls to go.

If cricket was about trying to miss the ball by as little a margin as possible without touching it, Poonam Yadav would have had a great day. It’s not, though, and Poonam scored off only three of the 15 deliveries she faced. That means 12 dot balls. These kind of things usually kill a run-a-ball chase. They almost did.

Twice in the last two months, Harmanpreet had launched her attack against big targets too late. Twice she had felt what it was like to take the team so close and then not make it. This time, though, there would be no mistake.

Poonam’s flirtation with the atmosphere meant nine were needed off the last six balls. The good news was that Harmanpreet was on strike. They got a single and lost a wicket off the first ball, Poonam coming back for a non-existent second. Nine wickets down now, no more sacrificial runs to keep Harmanpreet on strike.

She had no choice but to look for the big shot. Second ball, she missed a slog. Third ball, hit straight to mid off, no run. Fourth ball, a perfect Yorker that went through her legs, but somehow missed the stumps. Three dot balls. Just one run off the last four balls. On most other days, this would have won South Africa the title.

Eight needed off two. Finally, Harmanpreet found the ball she was looking for. Short of length, she stepped out and sent the ball out of the ground. It is not one of those sixes you have to watch to check if it will clear the downsized boundary. It is a fire and forget missile. It is out of the ground.

A mis-hit, a scramble, a dive and a misfield off the last ball and India maintain their spotless run in the tournament. More importantly, they achieve their highest-ever run-chase. They win their first ICC event. And they do it without Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami.

You can set up as many game-sense training sessions as you want. Write an imaginary score on the whiteboard, chase an imaginary target. You can even wear the match kit in practice to make it feel the same. It is still just training. The stakes are lower, the emotion is muted, there is no history leaning on you, no context afflicting your nerves. Which is why nothing beats match practice.

That is exactly what Harmanpreet was getting in the last two months while she was at the WBBL. She played 14 T20 matches in six weeks. In the best domestic T20 competition in the world. Against some of the world’s best female players.

It’s why she knew that the target was in sight, no matter how far away it looked. It’s why she knew not to risk losing partners, and farmed the strike. It’s why she knew that she could go for the big shot, and more importantly, when. There is only so much you can teach someone in training.

If you want a change in results, change the way you have been doing things. The BCCI made history by letting female players play in domestic leagues abroad. The players, in turn, have made history with this win.

If there was ever any fog looking for downsides of playing in the WBBL, it has just been blown away.