KOLKATA: A week before the Women’s World Cup, Richa Ghosh established her place strongly in the India squad by hitting the fastest fifty by an Indian batter in women’s ODI cricket in the fourth match of the series against New Zealand at the John Davies Oval, Queenstown on Tuesday.
The Bengal girl walked in when India were precariously placed at 19 for four in the fifth over of the rain-shortened chase of 192 in 20 overs. Smriti Mandhana was out of rhythm after a long and hard quarantine and youngsters Shafali Verma (0) and Yastika Bhatia (0) were out in quick succession. But Ghosh started playing her shots, raising hopes of an unlikely India comeback. She got good support from her skipper Mithali Raj as the duo were involved in a 67-run stand. But the Siliguri girl could not finish off things and fell for 52 off 29 balls hitting four fours and four sixes. As Raj departed soon after for 30 off 28 balls, India folded up for 128 in 17.5 overs thereby going down by 63 runs. The hosts moved toward a clean sweep leading the series 4-0.

It has been a phenomenal rise for Ghosh who at 11was selected to the Bengal Under-19 side. She broke into the U-23 side and the senior team when she was a little over 12. She was named Bengal woman cricketer of the year in 2018. Ghosh, who once opened bowling for Bengal with Jhulan Goswami, was first tried as a wicketkeeper playing for Trailblazers in the T20 Women’s Challenge held in UAE in 2020.
Ghosh made it to the India World Cup squad after hitting unbeaten 32 off 29 balls on her ODI debut against Australia last September. She followed it up with 44 in the next match. Her ability to score briskly saw the Hobart Hurricanes pick her for the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia. However, she didn’t have a great season managing just 162 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 95.29.
India had a good fight for the wicketkeeper’s spot with Sushma Verma doing the duty during 2017 before being replaced by Taniya Bhatia in 2018. The former came back to take Taniya’s spot in the South Africa home series in March last year with another keeper Sweta Verma also thrown into the mix. However, Sushma lost her place to Taniya again during the England tour. But Ghosh took over in the Australia series.
“Taniya Bhatia has been very reliable behind the stumps and Richa Ghosh is hot on her heels, meaning we have two wicketkeepers we can trust,” Raj said after Tuesday’s match. The 18-year-old also rose 15 spots to No.54 in the latest ICC ODI rankings.
Brief scores: New Zealand 191/5 in 20 ovs (Amelia Kerr 68, Suzie Bates 41; Renuka Singh 2-33). India 128 in 17.5 ovs (Richa Ghosh 52, Mithali Raj 30; Jess Kerr 2-11, Hayley Jensen 3-32, Amelia Kerr 3-30). NZ won by 63 runs.
Fastest 50s by Indian Women
26 balls: Richa Ghosh vs NZ, 2022
29 balls: Rumeli Dhar vs SL, 2008
32 balls: Veda Krishnamurthy vs SA, 2018