da winzada777： Cricinfo asked former and current women players for their lasting memories from each of the eight World Cups so far. Mithali Raj, the former India captain, revisits the last tournament
da bet7： 14-Mar-2009
Mithali bats in the final, where she finished on 91 off 104 balls © Touchline
2005, South Africa
Mithali Raj
Before we left I read a newspaper article about the World Cup that said that Indiacould be the best and the worst. And, you know, that was what happened – we playedbrilliantly through the tournament only to lose the final miserably.As a batsman my toughest, and most memorable, match was the semi-final against NewZealand, a team we had lost to earlier. We were under pressure at 38 for 2 when Icame to bat. Anjum [Chopra] and I had to build the innings and our stand wascrucial.We didn’t talk too much during the partnership. We had batted together over the years andknew each other’s style and temperament. All we said was, “We can do this.”The best part of the game was that several decisions were referred to the third umpireand it was really our day because every decision – marginal mostly – went in ourfavour.The 2005 India team was also one of the best I have played with – there was a greatmix of youth and experience. Anjum, Neetu [David] and Anju Jain were the seniors with alot of experience, while Nooshin [Al Khadeer] and Amita [Sharma] were playing theirfirst World Cup. We gelled together on and off the field, went sightseeing and shopping together and enjoyed each other’s successes.