Manasi Agarwal

Mithali Dorai Raj aka “Lady Tendulkar” has become the first Indian woman cricketer to complete ten thousand (10,000) international runs last Friday. She achieved this landmark by scoring 36 runs in the 3^rd ODI against South Africa. She is now behind the ex-English captain Charlotte Edwards by only 148 runs. She is also the highest run-scorer in women’s international cricket and the only female cricketer to surpass the 7,000 run mark in Women’s ODI matches. She became the first player from India (either male or female) to score 2000 runs in WT20Is during the Women’s T20 Asia Cup in June 2018. She also became the first woman cricketer to reach 2000+ T20I runs. Mithali is the only female cricketer to play in 200+ ODIs and completed 20 years in international cricket in 2019. Born in 1982 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan to a Tamil family and currently living in Hyderabad has so far scored 663 runs in Tests (10), 7098 runs in ODI (214) and 2364 runs in T20I (89). Her average is above 51 in Tests and ODI while it is 37.52 in T20I. The right-handed batter and occasional leg-break bowler was picked up for 1997 World Cup probables at the age of just 14 but could not make it to the final squad. He played her ODI debut match against Ireland in England and played a glorious innings of 114 not out. Her Test debut was in the 2001–02 season against South Africa at Lucknow and in her third Test on 17 August 2002 at the age of 19, she broke ex-Australian cricketer Karen Rolton’s record of world’s highest individual Test score of 209* scoring 214 against England in the second and final Test . She is the only female cricketer to captain India team in two World Cup finals- 2005 & 2017. Mithali led the side to their first ever Test and Series victory in England in 2006 and also the Asia Cup within 12 months without dropping a single game. At the 2013 Women’s World Cup, she was ranked the No.1 Cricketer in the women ODI ranking and was also a member of 2017 squad which lost the title to England by 9 runs.

MITHALI RAJ BECOMES THE FIRST INDIAN WOMAN CRICKETER TO SCORE TEN THOUSAND INTERNATIONAL RUNS

Mithali scored her seventh consecutive half-century and made a record for most consecutive fifties by a player. She holds the record for playing the most consecutive Women’s ODI for a team (109). She was appointed batting consultant to Indian Women’s Cricket Team and played as player-cum-coach. She retired from T20I Cricket in September 2019 to focus for 2021 World Cup, which has been postponed to 2022 due to Corora-19 pandemic. Mithali loves reading books and is also a Bharatnatyam dancer. Bollywood has planned a biopic on her with Taapsi Pannu in the lead role. She has adorned cover page of many women’s magazine like Femina etc.

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