An Indian women’s all-rounder cricketer named Divya Gnanananda is in the news a lot. She is 28 years old and plays for India’s D team and Karnataka women’s cricket team. Divya is a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore women’s team in the Women’s Premier League.

Like most cricketers in India, Divya Gnanananda was inspired to play cricket by watching the great Sachin Tendulkar. Divya made her professional debut at the age of 15. She played with Prasidh Krishna during her school days. Trained by Srinivas Murthy, she has played for Shantha Rangaswamy’s Falcon Sports Club.

Divya has been one of the best players for Karnataka in domestic cricket and has been a consistent run-scorer across formats. In the Senior Women’s ODI Trophy last year, she was the seventh-highest run-scorer with 396 runs in 10 innings at an average of 49.50. She scored a half-century (69 off 116 balls) in the tournament final against Railways.

However, his innings went in vain and Railways won by 6 wickets. Now Divya Gnanananda has shared the story of KL Rahul’s style celebration after scoring a half-century in the final of the Senior Women’s ODI Trophy last year.

Why did Divya Gnanananda copy KL Rahul’s celebration style?

“That (shutting down the noise) celebration was special for me because it came after a difficult time. We were playing against the same team at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in the final. I felt the pressure to perform well as it was our home ground and my supporters were there. I started off strongly by hitting two boundaries off Meghna Singh and felt confident. But then I made a mistake and got out.”

“From that day till recently, I faced a lot of criticism, especially from my close friends and family. They kept reminding me of that match and doubting my abilities against tough teams and quality bowlers. That made me very upset.”

“When I finally got the chance to face them and scored 46, I felt a range of emotions. I was so focused on proving myself that I didn’t even realise I was close to scoring 50. When I scored, I felt like throwing my bat down to show that I won’t listen to negative comments anymore. I wanted to prove that I can score runs against tough teams and even score 50 against strong opponents. So that’s how I celebrated.”