Harmanpreet Kaur becomes 5th Indian woman to play 100 ODIs

LUCKNOW: Indian women's team batter Harmanpreet Kaur on Sunday achieved another milestone of playing 100

ODI

for the side. She became the fifth player to do so as she took the field in the ongoing ODI match against South Africa here in Lucknow.

The vice-captain joined Mithali Raj (210), Jhulan Goswami (183), Anjum Chopra (127) and Amita Sharma (116) in the elite list of players who have played 100 or more ODIs.

Indian women's team vice-captain Harmanpreet played a knock of 40 runs studded with six fours. Before the match, she scored 2372 runs in the 50-over format till date at 34.88 with three hundreds and 11 half-centuries.

South Africa women won the toss and elected to field first.

India Women (Playing XI): Punam Raut, Smriti Mandhana, Mithali Raj(c), Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sushma Verma(w), Jhulan Goswami, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Monica Patel, Poonam Yadav.

South Africa Women (Playing XI): Laura Wolvaardt, Trisha Chetty(w), Lizelle Lee, Mignon du Preez, Sune Luus(c), Marizanne Kapp, Nadine de Klerk, Ayabonga Khaka, Shabnim Ismail, Lara Goodall, Nonkululeko Mlaba.

On Saturday, India women's ODI skipper Mithali Raj had said that she would like to give every youngster in the side a game in the upcoming five-match ODI series against South Africa for a perfect build-up ahead of the Women's World Cup in 2022.

"Definitely, yes because it's a five-match ODI series and we have some young players in the side. As the captain, I would like to give them opportunities to show their talent and yes we are looking at giving the youngsters an opportunity in this five-match ODI series," Mithali had said while replying to an ANI query during a virtual press conference on Saturday.

"This series is very important, we will see the composition of the team. Everybody is coming after a long gap, this series is very important as we have young players and it is the right platform to give them opportunities. It is also about ensuring that the core players get enough game time to develop that rhythm and take it from there," she had added.

When asked about Shafali Verma's omission from the ODI squad, Mithali replied: "She definitely is in the scheme of things, she is on the radar. We need to have a little bit of patience and we will see her very soon."