India’s Women ODI skipper Mithali Raj has become the first women player to score 7000 ODI runs in Women Internationals after she scored 45 runs off 71 balls in the fourth ODI against South Africa Women at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on Sunday.
Raj reached the milestone when she completed 26 runs in the first innings. The legendary batswoman took 213 ODIs to reach the landmark, which is achieved for the first time in Women’s cricket.
In fact, the 38-year old had become the second Women player to complete 10,000 International runs in all three formats of the game in the second ODI against the Proteas. She had joined Charlotte Edwards, who had scored 10,273 runs in her glorious career.
Consequently, Raj is now 227 runs away from surpassing Edwards’ record. Raj had stated that she never thought much about these milestones and when one plays for such a long time, they are expected to achieve these landmarks.
Raj had said earlier, “When you play for this long, you go through different milestones. This being one of it, the key for me has always been consistency, and I have always believed in scoring runs each time I go out to bat, whether it is domestic or international cricket. As long as I get an opportunity to bat, it has to be counted, and that has given me a lot of experience and exposure to work on my game over the years with the changing standards in the women’s game and trying to be relevant in the international circuit.”
Meanwhile, the 38-year old made her ODI debut back in 1999 against Ireland Women and had a great start to her career as she scored a fine knock of 114 runs while opening the innings.
Mithali decided to call it a day in T20I format after she accumulated 2,364 runs in 89 matches at an average of 37.52. The 38-year-old has scored 75 half-centuries and eight hundred for India Women across all formats.
Raj has been a consistent performer since she made her ODI debut back in 1999. On the other hand, South Africa Women currently lead the ongoing five-match series by 2-1.
