Mithali Raj becomes the 1st women cricketer to score 7000 runs in ODIs

Days after becoming only the second women to touch the 10000 run mark in International cricket, Indian skipper Mithali Raj added another feather to her already illustrious career. Mithali became the first women cricketer to score 7000 runs in ODIs. She achieved the feat during her 45 run knock in the fourth ODI against South Africa women.

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Put in to bat, India women posted 266-4 in their 50 overs. Punam Raut continued her stellar form and smashed a magnificent 104 off 123. Harmanpreet Kaur too stoked a blistering half century and took the Indian inning past the 250 run mark. She was dismissed for a 35 ball 54, an inning that was studded with 7 glorious boundaries and a massive six. Earlier, India brought Priya Punia in place of Jemimah Rodrigues and the opener played a solid hand of 32 off 51. Jhulan Goswami was also rested after suffering a minor hand injury. Radha Yadav was handed her maiden ODI cap.

India were jolted by an early blow as Smrithi Mandhana was dismissed for 10. Priya Punia and Punam Raut then stitched a 44 run partnership for the second wicket before the former departed for 32. Mithali and Raut then added 103 run for the third wicket which was followed by another 88 run partnership between Raut and Harmanpreet Kaur.

After becoming the second women to score 10,000 runs in international cricket, Mithali Raj said that she never pay attention to the milestones.

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"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.”

She said that the only milestone she want to achieve is to win a world cup for India.

“I have not really given much of a thought to any of the milestones. One milestone which will truly stand out is if we go on to win the World Cup, that will always be very very special.”

South Africa women are 87-0 in 17 overs at the time of writing and it’s all building up for a cracker finish. India need a win in this match to stay alive in the series.