Mithali Raj views her experience during the ICC Women’s World Cup

Indian Women’s team skipper Mithali Raj had an incredible run in the recently concluded Women’s World Cup in England. The right-hander scored 409 runs at an average over 45 which includes a century to her name. She played some match-winning knocks and led the team from the front throughout the mega event. However, at the age of 34, Mithali still feels there is a lot of cricket left in her journey.

She also became the highest run-getter in the Women’s ODI cricket history with 6190 runs during the WWC. Recently the skipper expressed her views and experience after the dream run in England, in a conversation at the St John’s Cricket Stadium in Secunderabad. She also talked about the loss in the final against England.

Inexperience and pressure

Indian team came very close to making history in the final of the World Cup but fell 9 runs short of the title. Raj cited that the inexperience of handling pressure situation was the main reason for the defeat.

“It did hurt as the match was in our hands for a long time and we crumbled in the end. The inexperience in the lower order and the pressure could have been the reasons. Even if it was a one-sided match, it would not have hurt so much. As a captain and a player, we disappointed ourselves by not turning a match, which was in our grip, to our advantage,” said Mithali.

However, the skipper was very proud of the girls and was pretty confident that this performance would motivate the team to perform better in the future challenging situations. “However our performance has benefitted women’s cricket as a whole,” she added.

Right through the WWC, we saw Mithali read a book while she was waiting for her turn to bat or after returning back to the pavilion. She stated that reading books helps her to remain occupied in pressure situations.

“I keep myself occupied by reading. I love Jeffrey Archer’s Paths of Glory, Matthew Reilly’s The Tournament and Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. I like exploring new places — I do not get to do that when I am on a tour, I’m not a film buff, but watched Baahubali after five years,” Mithali concluded.