“I wonder what scoring a double century is like. Can I score one? A century or a double century?” Mithali Raj asked Nooshin. She was going through the newspaper where the news of Michael Vaughan’s 197 against India came up. Nooshin-al Khadeer is her best friend. Both of them had played for Hyderabad and South Zone before becoming teammates on the national side. Nooshin replied jovially that she can hit a double century.
India had a horrible tri-series in 2002 and, their 1st Test was abandoned due to rain. Mithali had performed miserably in the ODI’s with a couple of single-digit scores and, her morale was down. She was so upset with herself that she didn’t even call back to India. Her mother back in India thought that her flight must have been hijacked. That’s why she was not unable to connect.
India reached Taunton for the 2nd test match. Mithali made her debut in 2001-02 and scored a duck against England at Lucknow. In her second Test, at Paarl, she was one of five Indians to score the half centuries the first innings as South Africa Women was handed a 10-wicket defeat.
Indian skipper, Anjum Chopra, asked the host to open their innings after she won the toss. Jhulan Goswami and Sunita Singh reduced England to 27/3 in the morning session. Claire Taylor and Clare Connor though tried to rebuild the innings, Anjum Chopra with her medium pace removed Taylor.
Laura Newton joined her skipper and both of them added 56 runs for the 5th wicket. Though Newton fell just 2 runs short of her century to Goswami, she and wicket-keeper Goldiman had a stand of 106 runs. England ended their innings on 329 runs. Left-arm spinner Neetu David was the pick of the bowlers, claiming 4 wickets for 71 runs.
Indian team fielded five bowlers, and without any specialist openers.
Sulakshana Naik, who opened in the Tri-series was asked to bat dow the order. So, Mamatha Maben, who had never opened the innings before joined Sunetra Paranjape to open the innings. Their job was to survive the initial overs so that, middle-order consisted of Mithali Raj, Anjum Chopra, and Hemalata Kala can consolidate the innings.
India lost Maben at 45. But she played 58 balls and did the job assigned to her. Anjum Chopra who had already spent some time in the middle was joined by Mithali Raj. Both of them ‘occupied that crease’ and didn’t give much focus to score quickly. Anjum and MIthali added 55 in 3 hours and that eased Mithali’s nerve. Opponent set fields for Mithali’s favourite zone but, Mithali decided not to play through the square till she was set.
Clare Connor brought her bowlers in short spells to break the concentration but Mithali was determined. At the end of the 2nd day’s play, she was not out on 42 and India was on 156/3. The next morning, Raj completed her half-century and marched along. She and Hemalata Kala added 144 runs for the 4th wicket. England skipper Clare played all her cards to break the partnership but in vain.
India lost a couple of wickets in quick succession but Mithali was unrattled. Jhulan joined in the middle. She chipped in with 62 of 196. Had it been any other day, her contribution could have been praised much more than it got, but the day belonged to Mithali Raj.
England seamers applied every ploy they had in the armoury from blowing round the wicket to coming in short spells, but Mithali Raj, who wore a jumper all the time faced those with ease. Spinners tried to toss the ball up, completed their over quickly but, everything looked ease to her. England even used nine bowlers including the part-timers but, Mithali continued to hit them throughout the ground.
Mithali Raj crossed her maiden hundred, one hundred and fifty and the dressing room started to look at the statistics. It has been a year since Kaen Rolton had broke the record of the highest individual run. She went past Sandhya Agarwal’s 190, the highest score by an Indian. While scorer and teammates were frantically flipping the pages of scorebooks, Mithali was unaware of the records that got trampled under her bat.
Her cover drives continued and she became the 1st Indian and 4th overall to score a double century. The 19 years old who had made a century in her ODI debut, three years earlier, came to know how does it feel to score a double century. And her mother Leela Raj got the news that her daughter hadn’t died of the plane crash and actually dominating the English ground.
Mithali Raj who was exhausted after her day-long batting was passed the information that she is getting closer to the historic feat by one of her teammates, who came to the field to provide the water. During the fag end of the day she broke the world record to become the highest individual scorer in test innings.
As she broke the record, the speaker announced it and the spectators erupted in joy. Mithali Raj brought the taste of independence in the foreign soil. She too became the youngest ever women cricketer to hit a double hundred in test cricket.
She eventually got out to Isha Guha but not before scoring 214 on the next day. Her 214 was runs consisted of 19 fours and that lasted almost 10 hours. Her wicket triggered a collapse and India was dismissed for 467 in 178th over. England batted the rest of the day and the test ended at a draw.
For a lazy girl who was reluctant to get up early in the morning or go to the practice, it was an achievement to cherish. And the for Indians it was a way to forget the terrifying memories of Tri-series and end the tour with a positive note. Mithali’s record was later broken by Kiran Baluch (242) in her lone test match against West Indies.
Brief Score:
England 329 (Laura Newton 98, Neetu David 4/71) and 198/6 (Charlotte Edwards 56, Neetu David 2/70)
India 467 (Mithali Raj 214, Nicky Shaw 3/70)
