“Let me share a story with you all” – Pakistan’s Kainat Imtiaz meets her childhood idol, India’s Jhulan Goswani

Pakistan may yet to register a win at Women’s World Cup 2017, but in the bigger play for hearts and minds, the team can’t lose. Just 20 years on from their first ever organised women’s international, their presence here has lit up the tournament.

On Sunday at Bristol against India, they fielded and bowled brilliantly before falling away with the bat to lose by 95 runs, but for pace bowler Kainat Imtiaz, the match still afforded her the chance to meet her childhood idol, India Women’s legendary fast bowler Jhulan Goswami.

Imtiaz took to Instagram to share a story, that she had first seen Goswani when serving as a ball girl in the 2005 Asia Cup, and had been “so impressed” to see the “fastest bowler of that time” in the flesh that she decided to try to follow her path into a cricket career.

In one of the tournament’s defining images so far, Imtiaz posted a photo of the two women shoulder to shoulder after the match, thanking “one of my inspirations” and vowing to continue “getting more inspired.”