Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
The ongoing women’s ODI series between India and New Zealand has not been great for the visitors, with Women in Blue losing the first 4 matches.
However, there have been a few major positives for the Mithali Raj led side in the last few games, with the most important one being the rise of Richa Ghosh in middle-order.
The 18-year-old has been a part of the national setup for some time now but she hadn’t really lived up to the expectations. Richa had shown glimpses of her power-hitting abilities by playing a few cameos but the youngster has finally done justice to her talent during the series against New Zealand.
After playing an impressive 22-run knock in series opener, the right-handed batter caught everyone’s attention with her whirl winding innings of 65 runs (off 64 balls) in next match. She missed the subsequent encounter due to injury and as she returned for 4th ODI, she resumed from where she left. Instead, she went a step ahead and broke a few records.
Chasing a target of 192 runs in a game reduced to 20 overs, Richa came to bat when India were struggling at 19/4. And this is when she launched a counte-rattack. The youngster played some glorious shots all over the park and reached her half-century in only 26 balls, breaking the record of fastest fifty by an Indian in women’s ODIs (going past Rumeli Dhar who had scored a half-century in 29 balls against Sri Lanka in 2008).
Watch the video here:
Fastest 50s in Women’s ODIs
20 – Deandra Dottin v SL, 2013
22 – Nat Sciver v PAK, 2016
23 – Meg Lanning v NZ, 2012
23 – Ashleigh Gardner v WI, 2019
24 – Nat Sciver v SL, 2016
25 – Chloe Tryon v ENG, 2017
26 – Richa Ghosh v NZ, 2022
Notably, Richa’s heroics (52 off 29) were not enough to lead her side to victory as India’s innings collapsed post her dismissal as they eventually fell short of the target by 63 runs.
