Cricket is termed as gentlemen's game. As the name suggests, the game was played only by men for a significant amount of time. It was only in the 19th century when women's cricket started to shape up. Indian women's cricket team started its journey from 1974, when Shanta Rangaswamy, Diana Edluji, Sandhya Agarwal pioneering the revolutionary team. Today Indian women's cricket team has spread it's wings worldwide and it enjoys the love shown by cricket fans who no more believe that the game is limited to men.

It's been a long journey for Indian women to reach to the glory it has achieved today. And in process the cricketing world found gems like Anjum Chopra, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, and most importantly, the queen of cricket:Mithali Raj. If one thinks of women's cricket, the first name which comes to mind is Mithali Dorai Raj. The stalwart has left a huge legacy to her name, which is unmatched. She is one of the reasons for Indian women to witness the revolution which helps them enjoy a formidable position today. Lot about Mithali's later career years is known to people, however there are still many things which have gone unnoticed.

And one such incident is the double hundred scored by Mithali Raj in 2002, which inspired many and helped India save the test match. Mithali is one of those players who was always elegant. She was a genius when it came to piercing gaps and scoring boundaries. She had announced herself in the international circuit with a hundred on her international debut back in 1999. With this hundred, she didn't just help India to win the match by 10 wickets, but she also broke the record of being the youngest centurion in the world. The world record of being youngest centurion at the age of 16, which was previously held by Afridi, continued to be on Mithali's name for around the next 21 long years, post which Amy Hunter broke it.

Sensational debut already had made her a star. And just at a young age of 19, she was already considered to be a senior in the team, when she was named in the Indian tour of England, which included 2 test matches. The first test match was abandoned, and hence both the teams were raring to go for the second test. Anjum Chopra, the Indian skipper decided to ask England to bat after winning the toss. And English women made most of the opportunity and registered a good total of 329 runs after batting for 4 sessions. A young Indian spearhead Jhulan Goswami and Neetu David's efforts were good enough to stop them from going beyond 329.

Yet it was a decent total, which India had to come closer to, if not take a lead. Skipper Anjum Chopra hit a half century before being dismissed. The duo of Anjum at number 3, and Mithali at number 4 started too cautiously, and then slowly started to turn the tide by taking quick singles and hitting cheeky boundaries. Post the captain's dismissal, a 19 year old Mithali stitched a good partnership with Hemalata Kala, who went on to score a knock of 62 runs. In process, Mithali went on to reach to her century. It was all fine till the duo was on the crease, however things changed post the later's dismissal as Deepa Marathe and Sulakshana Naik were dismissed quickly when Indian scorecard read 297/6.

With no recognised batters there to accompany Mithali, it looked like India will just have a lead of 20 odd runs and nothing more. But Goswami had different plans. Jhulan Goswami, who was almost the same age as Mithali was comparatively new to the international circuit. She was slightly agitated as she was never given a chance to bat in the nets despite asking for it, and was sent in the middle asking to save the match with the orders to bat well. Mithali, who till then had batted for long duration was tired, and explained the situation to Jhulan. Knowing that giving up was not an option, Jhulan motivated the former by saying,"We have to do it. We have to bat long. I don't know how to bat but I am going to do it. And you are a good batter, I know you are tired, but look at the Indian flag and do it for the team".

A tired Mithali probably needed the same kind of motivation, and Jhulan's words did the trick for her. The duo started to bat well and frustrate the English bowlers. Both continued to bat till the end of the day. Jhulan, who hardly batted in the nets scored her half century and assisted Mithali exceptionally well. Seeing her bat demoralized the English, and it allowed Mithali to free her arms. And she continued to tonk the English bowling line-up. Few minutes before the day end, she reached to her double hundred. It was a moment of joy and pride for the Indian team as the young sensation of Indian team had gone on to become the first ever double centurion for India. She batted for 10 long hours to reach this milestone.

She was tired, yet extremely happy to contribute her way to Indian success and also for her double hundred. Little did she knew that she was on the verge of breaking another record in process. The previous personal best score in tests was 209 runs scored by Karen Rolton. And unknown to this fact, Mithali continued to bat. She only got to know that she had a chance to break the record when 12th player was sent only to inform her about the same. And once she realised, she knew she was going to own the record. And she did it by reaching to a total of 214 runs, before getting dismissed. The team applauded her effort to save the test match, which would go on in history books. The duo of Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj saved the test match for India, which otherwise could've favoured the hosts. This was first of the many times when the duo carved the way to India's victory.

The legendary duo of India broke numerous individual and collective records in the future. The record of Mithali Raj in that match was later broken by Pakistani batter Kiran Baluch who scored 242 runs 2 years later. But looking at the importance of the match, undoubtedly it was Mithali's innings which was more impactful. That day, she saved the match for India, and in future became the saviour of women's cricket. The queen of cricket, as she is termed by cricketing world broke almost all the records related to batting in her beautiful career spanned over 2 decades. A huge servant to Indian cricket, she had a lioness' share in the way women cricket is now looked upon. The youngest centurion for a long time, and the first Indian double centurion in tests, she ruled the world cricket and inspired millions with her on and off field behaviour.