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Australia's young batter Phoebe Litchfield broke a handful of records with her scintillating ton against India in the final ODI of the three-match series at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday.
The 20-year-old batter scored 119 off 125 balls to propel Australia's score to 338/7. Litchfield's knock was brought to an end by Deepti Sharma's spin. As the young star walked back to the dugout she finished the ODI series with 260 runs in her kitty and became the first woman cricketer to hit three 50-plus scores in a three-game ODI series both against and in India. No other woman cricketer has scored more runs in a three-game ODI series in India than Litchfield. She surpassed England's great Claire Taylor's previous record of 225 in 2006. Litchfield also set a new high-water mark for most runs by an Australian woman in a three-game ODI series, eclipsing Meg Lanning's 246 against New Zealand in 2016. Litchfield is the second Australian woman to hit a one-day ton at Wankhede, following Lanning, who hit a ton at the iconic Mumbai ground during the 2013 World Cup. She also became just the seventh visiting batter to hit a one-day hundred in India. Litchfield has scored more runs in 50-over cricket in a calendar year before her turning 21 than any other Australian woman batter. She has amassed 485 runs in 2023 surpassing Meg Lanning's previous tally by a single run. After the end of the innings, Litchfield talked about her knock and said, "I think good batters around me and some nice cricket wickets to bat on, just a bit of patience as well. There are lots of scoring opportunities when there are four fielders outside. It was nervous nineties for me, but good to get there in the end. We thought we could push it a bit more, the start we got we pushed on. A few wickets pushed us back but the girls did finish well. Alana King and Wareham played well at the end." Australia completed a clean sweep over India as they registered a thumping 190-run victory in the final ODI of the series. (ANI)
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