Jhulan Goswami becomes the highest-ever wicket taker in women's ODI cricket
What’s the story?
India pacer Jhulan Goswami has become the highest wicket taker in women’s ODI cricket after her returns of 3/20 against South Africa during India’s 2nd ODI of the ongoing quadrangular series in Potchefstroom.
Goswami now has 181 wickets from 153 matches and has surpassed Australia’s Cathryn Fitzpatrick, who was the previous holder of the record with 180 wickets.
In case you didn’t know
The 34-year-old fast bowler is regarded as one of the fastest bowlers of all time in women’s cricket and she has been playing international cricket for over 15 years, having made her ODI debut in January 2002 against England Women in Lucknow.
She has also played 10 Test matches and has picked up 40 wickets at an average of 16.62 and an economy rate of 2.02. Additionally, in 60 T20I games, she has 50 wickets to her name at an economy rate of 5.25.
Details
Goswami achieved the feat with the wicket of the No. 11 South Africa batswoman Raisibe Ntozakhe and her three wickets, coupled with the three-wicket-haul for Shikha Pandey helped India Women bundle out the opposition at a paltry total of 119.
Apart from Goswami, another Indian cricketer features in the list of the top 5 wicket takers in women’s ODI cricket. Neetu David sits at No. 4 with 141 wickets from 97 ODIs. David played her last international game in September 2008 against England Women.
The Indian women’s cricket team is currently playing a quadrangular series in South Africa that involves, apart from the hosts, the women’s teams from Ireland and Zimbabwe. India have already won their first game of the series – against Ireland Women by 10 wickets.
In the game against Ireland, Goswami had returned with excellent figures of 1/9 from 8 overs, that included 4 maidens. The veteran bowler has been an integral part of India Women for a greater part of the past decade.
Author’s take
In an era when the men’s game has been dominated by the batsmen and we have had Indian batsmen ruling the charts for the top run-getters in the men’s game for over two decades, this achievement comes as a breath of fresh air.
That Goswami made her debut before the former India captain MS Dhoni and is more experienced (in terms of the number of years since debut) than all members of the current Indian squad for the Champions Trophy except Yuvraj Singh, is a testimony to the kind the workhorse that she has been.
This is indeed a proud moment for Indian cricket, and as rare as it might sound, the men’s team can now draw inspiration from and try to better what their woman colleague has achieved in international cricket.