Jhulan Goswami became the first woman in cricket history to take 200 ODI wickets on Wednesday. The 35-year-old pacer, who is already the leading wicket-taker in women’s One-Day Internationals, cemented her legacy further why she achieved the milestone in the second match against South Africa in Kimberly. In essence, every wicket she has taken since May is a new record.
Despite the big achievement, Goswami played it down saying that she does not keep count of the records and trusts in her process to keep the wickets flowing, even 15 years after her international debut in 2002. She took her record 181th wicket against South Africa in May.
“When I was only three wickets away from being the highest wicket-taker in the world, I was keeping a count. I took a long time to cross that milestone, but this time I was not counting. I was concentrating only on my processes. If my process is right, then wickets will follow,” she was quoted as saying by bcci.tv.
Goswami has taken 166 one-day games to get to 200 wickets with an economy of 3.23. Her best figures have been 6/31 against New Zealand in 2011. In the World Cup final in July, she claimed 10-3-23-3, which took her tally of World Cup wickets to 36, the joint third highest.
However, she also said that cricket is a team sport and is happier that India won the match and series in South Africa, their first international outing since the World Cup final. Powered by Smriti Mandhana’s century, fifties from Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy and a four-wicket haul from Poonam Yadav, India thrashed South Africa by 178 runs.
“Whatever milestone you have achieved, it feels good [only] when you are on the winning side. It was important for us to win. The points are important as it is the ICC Women’s Championship, a qualifying event for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2021. So, more than the 200 wickets, it was important to take the two points from each and every match,” she added.
Incidentally, even though India had a more-than-comfortable score on board, Goswami had felt the nerves while opening the bowling. In fact, she revealed that despite her long career, she is always feels the pressure and barely even eats between innings.
“Every match that I play for India, I feel the nerves. I always feel that pressure. And honestly speaking, I have hardly had lunch all my life. I can’t eat. It is added responsibility on me when we are playing big tournaments like this against South Africa. They are a quality side. When we scored 300 plus runs we know that they are going to try and hit, so I was just concentrating on my line. It was important to give early breakthroughs,” she told bcci.tv from South Africa.
The 35-year-old also said that she remembers each of her 200 wickets, so she cannot pick one.
“I remember each of my 200 wickets, right from the beginning of my international career in 2002. I still remember I got [Caroline] Atkins out, caught in the slips. Mithali was in the slip and she caught that catch. Whenever I bowl at a crucial time in the match and end a partnership, it becomes special for me. I cannot pick one. All the wickets are planned. Every wicket is important,” she said.
Goswami has the chance to add much more to her tally with an ODI left in South Africa and back-to-back home series against Australia and England.