Wonder Woman of India’s Women's Cricket: Mithali Raj

Indian Women's Cricket team came to the public attention like never before after the 2017 ICC World Cup ODI, as India stood as second in the highly competitive sport after defeating the world no. 1 Australia. It was captained by none other than Mithali Raj. Mithali, the current ODI captain of India started playing for the team as soon as she was about to turn 17. She was also awarded the prestigious Arjuna Award in 2003, at the age of 21 only.

Not only this, there are various exciting and astonishing facts about Mithali Raj which makes one wonder, where Indian Women's Cricket team be if it wasn't for her.

• She captained the Indian team in the ODI World Cup as early as 2005 and steered it to the finale. She became a captain at the age of 21, youngest ever in Indian women's cricket history. Though Australia defeated India, Indian women's team was recognized as a force to be reckoned with.

• Mithali is one of the very few cricketers to score a century in her very first international match against Ireland, on top of that, she is the youngest woman cricketer to achieve this feat.

• She not only has scored highest runs in women's cricket but also performed in maximum ODI innings. She has a record of making 6,888 runs and playing almost 206 ODIs, highest ever.

• Her average score is 51.58, the second-best scored by anyone, having played more than thirty-five plus matches. Similarly, in her all the 5 World Cup performances, in total she scored 1139 runs with 3rd best average in the women's cricket world.

• She is also one of the very rare women cricketers around the world to represent India in almost 90 ODIs since 2004, only after Belinda Clark of Australia and Charlotte Edwards of England.

• Apart from sports, she is a diligent reader revealed by the fact that the camera caught her reading ‘The Essential Rumi’, just before a match in the 2017 ODI World Cup. She candidly confessed that reading calms her nerves before a game. She is also fond of classical dance Bharatanatyam.

• She also has the unique achievement of being a player-coach as she also acted as the batting coach for India's National Women's Cricket team.

• Mithali has also batted from the position of an opener to the 9th which shows dynamism, adaptability, and control she holds over the game.

• Other than Stafanie Taylor, only Mithali Raj has been able to win 'Women of the Match' awards for more than eighteen times, which shows how consistent player she is, also reflected by her record of scoring most consecutive 50s.

• Though she was pushed to the cricket by her parents as her parents wanted her to enjoy sports, she turned out to be a miracle. For instance, she has a record of delivering 2nd highest ODI innings consecutively without a single duck.

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Created on Jan 7th 2020 06:21. Viewed 192 times.

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