It has been a sensational few days for the Indian Women’s cricket team as they have managed to qualify for the final of World Cup 2017 for only the 2nd time in their history.
Riding on a scintillating 171 by Harmanpreet Kaur in the semi finals against 6 time World champions Australia, India humbled them by 36 runs to enter the final.
Though Harmanpreet smashed a sensational knock the other day, the most consistent batswomen in this team have been none other than their captain Mithali Raj.
She has always been among the runs and has played the sheet anchor’s role to perfection. In the group game against the Aussies, Mithali became the first woman cricketer to score more than 6,000 ODI runs.
It has been a long career for MIthali and an average of more than 53 is just a testimony of how she has performed for her nation over the past many years.
In a face to face interview with ESPN Cricinfo, Mithali revealed how she felt quitting cricket after 2009 as she hardly had any motivation left in her to play for the country. She conceded that she had phases in her life where she didn’t want to play cricket anymore.
She wanted to give her best shot till the 2009 World Cup but when she realised that this was the time when women’s cricket was getting the limelight and exposure and for the first time the World Cup was telecasted on television, she wanted to push herself a bit more and she has successfully achieved that till now.
She revealed that she gets the inspiration from her parents who had struggled a lot in their initial phases to raise Mithali.
She conceded that her parents had to go through a lot of negativity from their immediate family members especially grandfather and aunts but still found ways to keep their life motivated and allow their girl to play the game which she likes the most.
She concluded by saying that whenever she is less motivated or inspired she thinks of her parent’s sacrifices which again set her in the right direction and gives her motivation to keep on performing.