On this day, Mithali Raj scored a double century against England to create history

While a cricket lover talks about VVS Laxman's exploits with the bat when he scored 281 against Australia to earn India the much-desired win at the Eden Gardens in 2001, the very next year, another significant milestone was achieved by the Indian women's cricket team, which is rarely revisited. This milestone was laid by none other than Mithali Raj who scored a brilliant double century. Raj’s 214 was the highest individual Test score in the women’s game at the time and is still the second-highest.

During the 2002 July-August tours of India, the team's outing had been anything but impressive. Two wins against Ireland were all they could manage and their despair reached the summit when the team was bundled out for 26 against England in an ODI at the start of the tour. Yet Raj batted with patience and changed the way how the world looked at Indian women's cricket team.

Youngest player to score a Double Century in International cricket: (Men/Women)

17y 243d - AMELIA KERR v IRE, Today (W ODI)

19y 140d - Javed Miandad v NZ, 1976 (M Test)

19y 254d - Mithali Raj v ENG, 2002 (W Test)#IREWvNZW

— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) June 13, 2018

Then a 19-year-old Mithali, who had made a sensational international debut with an ODI century when she was just 16, and earned her Test cap a few months before this tour, was at the cusp of her first Test ton. In response to England’s first-innings 329, India had sent in Mamatha Maben, who had never opened before, to bat time and take the shine off the new ball, along with Sunetra Paranjpe. Playing only her third Test match, and her first against England, Raj had added 144 runs for the fourth wicket with Hemlata Kala. Then tragedy struck when India was at 244, Kala was run out with her young partner still on 97, and India 85 runs behind. Raj knocked off the runs for her maiden Test century, but India continued to slide and were struggling at 297-6, in danger of being bowled out and conceding the lead.

It was then that fast bowler Jhulan Goswami walked in. It was Jhulan who kept Mithali's motivation high when she was tired and in doubt how long would she be able to last. Bowling to Raj that day, was Isa Guha, making her debut for England. Guha, now a respected television commentator, remembers admiring Raj’s cover drives and ‘languid style, very classical.’

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Raj and Goswami were finally separated the next morning after pulling off a record-breaking 157-run partnership for the seventh wicket. It was a ball from Isa Guha that trapped Mithali Raj before the stumps. Guha labelled it ‘pure relief.’ But by then, Raj had played 407 deliveries, sent the ball to the boundary 19 times, batted for an incredible 598 minutes, at two minutes shy of 10 hours, a Test record that remains unbroken two decades on. On the way, she had notched up 214, the then highest individual score in the history of women’s cricket. The visitors scored 467 and the match ended in a draw. It was India who celebrated.

Mithali Raj's batting finesse and able captaincy continued to take India to newer heights in the next decade-and-a-half and she had laid the foundations of a bright future for women’s cricket in India.