15th May, 2017 is a grand day of records for Indian women cricket team. India were competing in the Women’s Quadrangular Cup in South Africa along with host South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ireland women’s cricket team. India were clearly the strongest and they already won their first leg matches easily. On this day in the 8th match, Indian women faced Ireland women for the return leg and decided to bat after winning the toss.
19-year old Deepti Sharma and Punam Raut opened for India and they went big with their partnership and batted for long. Their partnership went to 100 then passed 200 and then passed 268, the then record highest partnership in women’s ODI between Caroline Atkins and Sarah Taylor. Finally the existing record was broken after they have added 320 runs in the 46th over. It is still the only 300+ partnership in women’s ODI and a great milestone. For India the previous highest was the unbeaten 258 runs partnership between debutants Reshma Gandhi and Mithali Raj which also came against Ireland women in 1999. These two are also the only two instances of two Indian players scoring century during the same match.
Individually Deepti scored 188 and Punam 109. Deepti’s 188 was at that time the second highest score in Women’s ODI after Belinda Clark’s monumental 229. Later Amelia Kerr scored 232 to break that record. Deepti also hit 27 fours, a world record later broken by Kerr.
