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Mithali Raj hits world record 214

By Our Special Correspondent

Chelmsford Aug. 17. After dismal performances in the tri-series featuring England and New Zealand, the Indian women's cricket team had something to cheer about on Saturday. The reason for the celebration was Jodhpur-born Mithali Raj.

Not yet 20 and playing her third Test (and the first on the tour of England), she delighted everybody by making a world record score of 214 in the third and final Test at Taunton, Somerset, the same venue where Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid had hammered the daylights out of Sri Lanka in a World Cup match in 1999. The previous highest by an Indian was 190 by Sandhya Agrawal.

Mithali, unbeaten on 210 on Friday evening, said: "This is my first Test in England. I was nervous in the 90s. Once I completed my first century, I started to play shots with confidence. Then I returned to the `nervous 190s', before creating a world record in the last ball bowled in the day". The previous highest was by Australia's Karen Rolton, who made 209 against England at Leeds last summer.

"I was not aware of the World record. A player sent with a water bottle alerted me about the record. It was great feeling when I got past the record", said Mithali, whose last Test was against South Africa at Paarl.

Mithali, who started her innings after lunch on Thursday, batted for two minutes short of ten hours, faced 407 balls and hit 19 fours. Spectators who had paid £ 3 gave her a standing ovation after the announcement was made on the public address system. Mithali was involved in another world record partnership of 157 for the seventh wicket with Jhulan Goswami (62).

"It's good for Indian women's cricket. We started the tour badly and many of our practice games were washed off due to rain. But the team has done well in this Test", said Ms. Jyoti Joshi, manager of the team.

The scores: England 333 (C. Connor 48, L. Newton 98, M. Godliman 69, S. Taylor 27, N. Shaw 27, Neetu David four for 71, Jhulan Goswami three for 51) vs India 467 (Mithali Raj 214, Anjum Chopra 52, Jhulan Goswami 62, Hemlata Kala 62, <147,1,0>N. Shaw three for 74).

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