Mithali Raj creates history, becomes first woman cricketer to play 200 ODIs
Mithali, who made her ODI debut in June 1999, is serving the game for 19 years and 219 days, now.
New Delhi: Mithali Raj on Friday became the first-ever women cricketer to play 200 one-day internationals. The ongoing third ODI against New Zealand marks the 200th appearance of the Indian women’s ODI team skipper.
The 36-year-old, who made her ODI debut in June 1999, is serving the game for 19 years and 219 days, now. This is fourth-highest among the men cricketers too as Mithali is just behind Sachin Tendulkar (463), Sanath Jayasuriya (445) and Javed Miandad (233).
Interestingly, Indian women have played a total of 263 ODIs in their history and Mithali has been a part of 200 of them.
The right-hand batswoman is also the highest run-scorer in ODI among women cricketers with a total of 6613 runs in her kitty, till now, which includes seven hundreds and 52 half centuries.
Mithali had played her first ODI at the age of 16 years and 205 days on India’s tour of Ireland and England. In the opening innings against Ireland, she had played an unbeaten knock of 114 runs making her the youngest female player to make a century.
She continued to give stellar and match winning performances in the following ODIs as well. Her unbeaten 91-run innings against New Zealand in 2005, 103 not out against Pakistan in 2013, 109 against New Zealand in 2017 are some of her worth remembering knocks.
Mithali is currently leading the Indian team in the three-match one day series against New Zealand which India are leading 2-0. Hosts have won the toss and put India to bat first in the ongoing final ODI of the series.