Kolkata: Women’s cricket across the world is attaining greater heights with each passing day and one of it’s chief vehicles has been the ongoing Women’s World Cup in England. In what can be called as one of the most historic and iconic moments in women’s cricket, Indian captain and stylish right-handed batswoman Mithali Raj became the highest run-scorer in women’s ODI cricket going past Charlotte Edwards of England. She also became the first one to reach the milestone of 6000 runs in the format surpassing Edwards’ 5992 runs in 191 matches.
Before this match, she was just 33 runs short of the world record set by the Englishwoman. After her patient 69 runs against the Australians in the Women’s World Cup, she achieved this remarkable feat that drew her praises for the entire cricketing fraternity.
Although her knock wasn’t enough as the Australian women went past them by eight wickets, this achievement is indeed a huge example for budding women cricketers who hope to make it big like Mithali one day.
Earlier in this tournament, she achieved the unique feat of scoring seven back-to-back fifties after her brilliant 71 against England. She also has the maximum number of ODI fifties (49) to her name besides having scored five hundreds.
In 1999, she scored a hundred on debut against Ireland and ever since then she has played a total of 182 matches in a period of 18 years and well and truly she has established herself to be one of the batting greats in women’s cricket.
For the records, veteran Indian pacer Jhulan Goswami also holds the record for being the leading wicket-taker in Women’s ODI cricket with a tally of 189 wickets.
After Mithali’s terrific achievement, congratulatory messages and tweets started pouring in as some big names like Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir, Mohammad Kaif, and even the Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee took their turns in praising her. Truly, she has led by example and has become an inspiration for many girls all over the world who want to take up this sport.
On this historic occasion, SportsCrunch would like to congratulate the Indian women’s skipper for this terrific achievement. Well done Mithali!