SK Elite: Mithali Raj's 109 vs New Zealand at the 2017 Women's World Cup

The Indian Women’s Cricket Team began their 2017 World Cup campaign brilliantly by defeating three-time champions and hosts England in the first match by 35 runs thanks to some sensational batting from Smriti Mandhana, Poonam Raut, and skipper Mithali Raj.

India followed this win with another three wins, first against West Indies, then against Pakistan (the men’s team of whom had defeated India in the Champions Trophy final exactly two weeks back), and against Sri Lanka.

However, this was followed by back-to-back defeats against South Africa and Australia. Despite this, it was during the defeat against Australia that Mithali Raj became the highest ODI run-scorer in the history of Women’s Cricket, surpassing former England captain Charlotte Edwards’ tally of 5992 runs. Raj also became the first female cricketer to ever score 6000 ODI runs.

India’s loss to Australia meant that their final group game against New Zealand would be a virtual quarter-final with the winner qualifying for the semi-finals and the loser going out of the tournament.

This would be India’s 10th World Cup meeting against New Zealand with New Zealand winning 7 of the previous 9 encounters including their previous meeting at the competition in 2009. India had defeated them in the semi-finals of the 2005 World Cup and one match in the 1997 World Cup ended in a tie.

Like India, New Zealand were also coming at the back of a defeat, against England by 75 runs. The match was held at Derby and New Zealand won the toss with skipper Suzie Bates opting to field first.

India’s disastrous start followed by Mithali’s magnificent knock

Raj scored her second century at the Women's World Cup

India were off to a disastrous start as medium-pacer Lea Tahuhu got the key wicket of Poonam Raut after the latter edged a back-of-a length delivery straight to first slip where Katey Martin took a simple catch.

Raut’s opening partner Smriti Mandhana soon followed suit after a confusing length delivery from Hannah Rowe baffled her and eventually shattered her off-stump. This left skipper Mithali Raj at the crease with Harmanpreet Kaur.

While Kaur was batting patiently, Mithali Raj was playing in a very balanced manner by defending a few deliveries before smashing a boundary or two. Both players played with a lot of composure and took calculated risk, that also on very few occasions as they put up 50 for the third wicket.

The Indian captain brought up her 50th ODI fifty and fourth fifty of the tournament with a flicking boundary through midwicket. Both batswomen gradually began to show some aggressive intent as India’s run-rate approached 4 during the end of the 31st over with the duo bringing up their 100 partnership.

Harmanpreet Kaur then brought up her first 50 of the tournament following which, she began to show some aggression by smashing back-to-back boundaries off New Zealand captain Suzie Bates. However, she was eventually dismissed in the following over by Leigh Kasperek after she mishit a slow, full length delivery right into the 25 year old’s hands.

Deepti Sharma joined Mithali Raj at the crease, but she was dismissed for a duck by Hannah Rowe and India were now 153/4.

In came Veda Krishnamurthy and she began slowly before unleashing a sea of aggression from the 43rd over.

The 24-year old was dealing only in boundaries and brought up her fifty in remarkable fashion with a flat six over long on.

While Veda was owning the leg side, Mithali Raj looked like a female right-handed version of Sourav Ganguly as she hammered the Kiwi bowlers all through the off-side boundary en route to her second century at the Women’s World Cup, becoming the first Asian cricketer to do so.

Both Raj and Krishnamurthy added 108 runs for the fifth wicket in only 78 deliveries to steer India past 250 before getting dismissed during the final over after scoring 109(123) and 70(45) respectively. India eventually ended their innings at 265/7.

Rajeshwari Gayakwad too good for the New Zealand batting

Rajeshwari Gayakwad's 5/18 blew New Zealand out of the World Cup

New Zealand began their run-chase with a very lucky boundary in the first over when Rachel Priest edged a Jhulan Goswami delivery which hit the leg stump without the bails falling off and raced away to the boundary.

However in the second over, the Black Caps weren’t as lucky, with Shikha Pandey netting the valuable wicket of Suzie Bates, whose leading edge found Veda Krishnamurthy at slip.

India nearly dismissed Priest in that over as well, only for Punam Raut to drop a difficult catch at point.

Priest’s luck wouldn’t last for long as in the very next over, Jhulan Goswami sent her packing after taking a brilliant catch off her on bowling.

Amy Satterthwaite and Katey Martin tried to build a partnership but were not able to play freely as Goswami and Pandey had totally contained them through their fine line and length.

In the 11th over, Deepti Sharma was introduced and in only her third delivery, she dismissed Martin who in an attempt to hit over midwicket, found Harmanpreet Kaur.

Sophie Devine came in to join Satterthwaite at the crease and the two were batting with a lot of care, trying to not give away their wicket under pressure.

However, Rajeshwari Gayakwad dismissed Satterthwaite and soon, Deepti Sharma sent Katie Perkins back to the pavilion, leaving New Zealand reeling at 52/5.

Gayakwad then went on a rampage as she took four of the next five wickets to dismiss New Zealand for just 79, thus ending the match and the World Cup for them. The Indian ended with figures of 5/15, thus bettering Ekta Bisht’s 5/18 against Pakistan for the best spell by an Indian bowler at the Women’s Cricket World Cup.

India were through to the semi-finals and Mithali Raj was adjudged the Player of the Match due to her invaluable innings of 109.

This was Mithali Raj’s 19th Man of the Match and her 5th at the Women’s World Cup, thus making her only the second player after Charlotte Edwards to win a Player of the Match award at five different World Cups.