People slam ACC for presenting peanuts to Mithali Raj

The Indian Women’s team is currently playing the T20 Asia Cup in Malaysia. They locked horns with the hosts at Kuala Lumpur and annihilated them by 142 runs in the opening match of the tournament. The visitors won the toss, elected to bat first and ever since almost nothing went wrong for the Women in Blue. The left-right combo of Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandhana commenced proceedings for them.

Mandhana couldn’t survive long as 17-year old Ainna Hamizah Hashim got rid of her in the second over. Pooja Vastrakar was promoted up the order and the move didn’t quite work out in India’s favour. She spanked three boundaries and looked ominous to notch a substantial knock. However, he became Noor Hayati Zakaria’s maiden victim just after the conclusion of the powerplay.

Mithali’s jaw-dropping performance

At the other end, Raj wielded his magic with the willow and notched her 14th half-century in the format. She was clinical throughout the innings and scored 97 runs from 69 balls. Most importantly, she ensured that the scoreboard never stopped moving. The knock was carved with 13 boundaries and a solitary six. The knock lifted India to a formidable score of 169/3 in 20 overs.

Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma’s cameos also meant that Raj got the apt support from her teammates. Malaysia were clueless during the run chase and were bundled out for 27 runs. The lost wickets in heaps as the Indians didn’t allow them any foothold into the contest whatsoever. Vastrakar was their standout bowler with three wickets.

Anuja Patil and Poonam Yadav picked up a couple of wickets each. Quite deservingly, Raj was crowned as the Player of the Match. Nevertheless, she got USD 250 as the award, which didn’t please people. Subsequently, they slammed the Asian Cricket Council (AAC) for their lack of gratitude for the legendary batswoman. Their male counterparts get approximately USD 2500 for the same category.

A comprehensive 142-run win for India against Malaysia in their first game of the #AsiaCup @mithaliraj scored a 97*(69) to bag the player of the match award 💪😎👌

A post shared by Team India (@indiancricketteam) on Jun 2, 2018 at 11:08pm PDT

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