Indian skipper Mithali Raj has done what everyone anticipated her to do in ICC Women’s World Cup 2017. Mithali has overtaken former England batter, Charlotte Edwards, to become the highest run scorer in ODI’s (Women Cricket). Raj has also become the first batter to score more than 6,000 ODI runs. Mithali took lesser innings than Edwards to score this many runs, she is currently playing her 164th innings whereas the latter did it in 180 innings. Raj is currently batting in India’s World Cup against Australia and has scored her 49th half century.
Raj who is probably playing her last World Cup has achieved this feat which might take a legend of a player to break. Players like Suzie Bates, Sarah Taylor and fiery Meg Lanning have the capability to get anywhere near her record in the coming days. She is also the only Indian batter on the top 10 list of highest run-scorers in Women’s ODI.
Raj also has the best average among the top 10 run scores in ODIs measured at 51.74 (though it might differ with her score against Australia). Raj has scored 5 centuries and 48 half-centuries in ODIs which is the most by any player in the list. Only Edwards is near her record but she had retired in 2016. Mithali’s this record too will be tough to break in the coming days.
.@M_Raj03 surpasses Charlotte Edwards (5992 runs) to become the highest run scorer in Women’s One Day Internationals pic.twitter.com/o5oUqS2adP
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) July 12, 2017
The moment @M_Raj03 brought up 6000 ODI runs! #WWC17 #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/8s2GELQw0v
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) July 12, 2017
Recently, Mithali also made a unique record as she scored 7 half-centuries on the trot. The video of her reading a book in the dugout all padded up to bat went viral during the initial stages of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017. She became the new definition cool and even got dubbed as the new ‘Captain Cool’ of team India, which was earlier used for MS Dhoni.
Raj is currently leading India’s squad in ODIs and Tests only after leaving the T20Is’ captaincy with Harmanpreet Kaur replacing her.
