India Captain Mithali Raj Achieves Another Milestone in First ODI vs Australia

Mithali Raj has scored five consecutive half centuries in ODI cricket.

Mithali Raj on the attack against Australia

Image: BCCI Women

The Indian women’s team captain Mithali Raj achieved yet another milestone in her career, scoring a fifth consecutive half century and completing 20,000 career runs during the first ODI against Australia.

She had earlier scored 75*, 59 and 72 against England while a 79* came against South Africa in her last four games.

Mithali (61 of 107) smashed her 59th half-century, while the other significant contributions came from debutants Yastika Bhatia (35 off 51) and debutant Richa Ghosh (32 not out off 29) in the first ODI.

For India however, the batting woes continue as they could only manage 225/8 against Australia in the first women's ODI of the three-match series on Tuesday.

India would probably have not crossed the 220-run mark if not for a fine eighth-wicket stand of 45 runs between veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami (20 off 24) and Ghosh.

India’s openers Shafali Verma (8) and Smriti Mandhana (16) were unable to get the team of to a good start and fell after hitting a few boundaries.

Senior batter Harmanpreet Kaur did not play the game due to a thumb injury and will also not be available for the second ODI.

India are on a multi-format tour of Australia where the team will play 3 T20Is and a Test along with the 3 ODIs.