The Indian women’s team made the country proud by beating New Zealand a couple of days ago by eight wickets and clinched the three-match ODI series by 2-0. The Women in Blue chased 161 runs at the Oval Bay in Mount Maunganui. The Indians lost their first wicket quite early in the game and it was Smriti Mandhana and Mithali Raj who took the team to the finishing line by scoring 90 and 63 runs respectively. During the course of her innings, the Indian captain surpassed MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli for best ODI average in successful run-chases. Mithali Raj & Co Jump to Number 2 Position in ICC Women's Championship Post Crushing New Zealand by 8 Wickets.

Mithali’s 52nd half-century came from 111 balls and the Indian captain had an average of 111.29 in successful ODI run chases. Meanwhile, she went past MS Dhoni (103.27) and Virat Kohli (96.23) recording the highest batting average in successful ODI run chase (men or women). Mithali has scored 1,892 runs off 48 innings for India in successful ODI run chases. The 36-year-old has remained not out on 31 occasions. The reason why India’s ODI skipper’s average is so high.

India’s veteran cricketer Jhulan Goswami snapped three wickets and bowled with an economy of 2.76. She gave away 23 runs while handling her bowling duties. Ekta Bisht, Deepti Sharma and Poonam Yadav got two wickets each. The Women in Blue achieved the target in 35.2 overs and with this, they are surely planning to whitewash the series and register a historic win. The Indian women’s team will meet the Black Caps tomorrow at Hamilton.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 31, 2019 08:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).