The Indian captain Mithali Dorai Raj is a hero to cherish, she has reached such a great accomplishment as a cricketer in her glittering career. Second, in the all-time highest run getter, Mithali Raj has produced some exceptional match winning knocks for India which now add up to 62 half centuries and 6 centuries in which 48 and 5 are scored in One Day Internationals. At 16, Raj made her ODI debut against Ireland in Campbell Park, England where she scored an unbeaten 114 runs, most by any Indian batter in a debut match. Raj has invariably been a key player of team India.
On Scoring 71 against England earlier this month she broke the record of six consecutive fifties held by Lindsay Reeler, Charlotte Edwards and Ellyse Perry. With her 7 consecutive half-centuries, she made a comprehensive national record surpassing Dravid’s record of 5.
Mithali now holds another record of most half-centuries in women’s cricket:
On Wednesday she played a crucial knock of 53 runs off 78 balls against Sri Lanka (India won by 16 runs) in the ongoing ICC women’s world cup, she added another feather to her glorious crown with a world record of 48 ODI half-centuries, before held by England’s Charlotte Edwards with 46 half-centuries.
Her first maiden half centuries came in WWC 2000 on 30th November 2000 against South Africa at Christchurch where she scored an unbeaten 69 runs in 95 balls with 11 fours, chasing the target of 129 in just 39.4 overs. Followed by 51 of 56 balls against Netherlands in Lincoln on 2nd December in the very next game which pointed the way to a massive 154 run triumph.
Mithali then continued to add many match winning knocks for India.
Out of her 48 ODI fifties:-
16 of them have come against England which is most number of 50s scored by any player against England.
She has scored 30 Match winning ODI 50s.
She has scored 8 world cup 50s.
She has scored 3 women’s championship 50s.
27 while batting first.
21 while fielding first.
Mithali Raj is now just 33 runs away from getting to the highest ODI run-scorer in women’s cricket, and 41 runs away to emerge as the first women cricketer to traverse the 6000 runs mark.
In an interview when she was asked about her records, she replied, “Statistics never interested me but in sports they hold far bigger value. I feel happy that I am the first Indian and the second in the world to achieve that milestone. It reflects my consistency and I am happy that my dad is today proud of my achievements.”
WWC2017 has been a great tournament for India so far with many records being broken and much more to be made; now the particular thing left is for our captain cool Mithali to bring home the world cup before she walks out of the realm for last time in ODI World Cup events.