Mithali Raj First Woman Cricketer Scored 7000 runs
The South African women’s cricket team is on a tour of India these days. The fourth ODI of the five-match series is being played between the two teams. Team India captain Mithali Raj hit an innings of 45 runs and during this time she crossed the 7000 runs mark in One Day International. Mithali Raj has become the first woman cricketer in the world to touch a score of 7000 runs in One Day International. Mithali played this innings with the help of four fours off 71 balls. Among ODI International’s highest run-scorer female cricketers is ranked second is Charlotte Edwards, who has scored 5992 runs in her account.
Mithali Raj is also the first female cricketer to cross the 6000-run mark in ODIs. Mithali Raj has scored 7019 runs in 213 matches at an average of 50.49. Mithali has seven centuries and 54 half-century in his account. His best score is not out of 125 runs. Mithali had crossed 10,000 international runs in the last match. Mithali is the first Indian female cricketer to do so.
Talking about the match, the Indian women’s team scored 266 runs for four wickets in 50 overs. Poonam Raut hit an innings of 104 not out. Harmanpreet Kaur hit an unbeaten 54 runs. Harmanpreet Kaur scored 54 off 35 balls and hit seven fours and a six during this period.
Only 19-year-old Mithali scored 214 runs
The Indian cricket team landed on 14 August 2002 to play a Test match against the women of England at the Taunton ground. At that time Mithali Raj was just 19 years old. England had made a strong score of 329 runs while batting first. After this, 2 wickets of Team India fell to just 45 runs. From here, there was a partnership between Mithali and Captain Anjum Chopra.
Anjum scored 52 runs, but Mithali stood by one end. Hemlata Kala and Jhulan Goswami scored 62-62 to support Mithali and the result was that Mithali scored a double century. Mithali became the victim of Isha Guha’s ball of Indian origin by scoring 214 runs in 407 balls. India scored 429 runs in Mithali’s 598 minutes thanks to this innings adorned with 19 fours. In response, England had lost 6 wickets for 198 runs till the Test draw.
The only double century of Indian cricket
Mithali broke Australia’s KL Rolton’s record for the highest score in Test cricket with his 214 runs. In July 2001, Rolton broke the old record of 204 runs with an unbeaten innings of 209 runs, which was made by Kei Flavell of New Zealand in 1996 and Michael Goszeko of Australia in June 2001, just a month before Rolton. The interesting thing is that this double century of Mithali was not only the first double century of Indian women’s cricket but it is also the only double century till date. Prior to Mithali, Sandhya Agarwal had scored 190 runs on the ground of Worcester in July 1986, which was the biggest individual score of Team Women India. It is still the second highest score of Indian women’s cricket.
Pakistan’s record was broken by Mithali’s record
Mithali Raj’s record for the biggest score in Test cricket remained in her name for just 2 years. Pakistan’s Kiran Baloch broke Mithali’s record by scoring 242 runs in March 2004 against West Indies at the Karachi ground, scoring 38 fours in 488 balls. Kiran is the record holder for the highest score of women’s Test cricket even after 18 years, while Mithali is only behind him at number two.
