Women’s World Cup: Mithali Raj ton, Veda Krishnamurthy’s quickfire 70 take India to 265 vs NZ

Captain Mithali Raj led from the front with a magnificent century as India recovered from an early wobble to score a challenging 265 for 7 against New Zealand in their final league match of the ICC Women’s World Cup here today.

Sent into bat, India were reduced to 21 for 2 in the eighth over but a 132-run stand between Mithali (109) and Harmanpreet Kaur (60) for the third wicket brought them back into the match.

Then, a brilliant quick-fire 70 off just 45 balls from the bat of Veda Krishnamurthy took India past 260.

Krishnamurthy enlivened the contest with some big shots, scoring above run-a-ball. Her 70 had seven fours and two sixes.

But, the highlight of the virtual knock-out match was Mithali’s sixth ton in her 184th match and her 109 came from 123 balls and had 11 fours in it.

Mithali, who in the earlier match against Australia became the highest run-getter in ODIs and first batswoman to reach 6000 runs, continued with her purple patch in the tournament.

She has already hit three half centuries and a 46 not out, besides today’s ton, from the seven matches she has played so far.

Coming in the eighth over at the team score of 21-2 …read more