Star Indian women's cricketer, Jemimah Rodrigues, continued her rich vein of form with the bat on August 11 (Thursday) and began this year's The Hundred competition in supreme fashion. Opening the batting for the Northern Superchargers, the right-handed batter swaggered her way to a fantastic half-century against the Oval Invincibles.
Rodrigues, who scored 51 runs in 32 balls with the help of eight boundaries, displayed commendable aggression even when wickets kept tumbling at the other end. The 21-year-old stitched a handy partnership of 66 runs for the fourth wicket with Laura Wolvaardt (49 runs off 39 balls) of New Zealand, which propelled Superchargers to a respectable total of 143-5.
More importantly, this was Rodrigues' fourth half-century of the competition, with three fifties coming in the maiden edition last year. The 21-year-old's effort also stands out for the simple reason that no other player has scored more fifties in the competition.
In Thursday's season opener, the Indian batter recorded her fourth half-century of the competition. No other batter in the nascent history of the tournament has scored more than two fifties.
Rodrigues' attractive knock also powered her to the top of the highest run-scorers list in The Hundred while she also became the first woman to reach the 300-run mark in the competition. The India international has scored 300 runs in eight innings in The Hundred.
Rodrigues ended the last edition as the second leading run-getter after tallying 249 runs at an average of 41.50 and a strike rate of 165 in seven innings.
Despite the 21-year-old's half-century, the Superchargers lost the match by a comprehensive margin of seven wickets as the Invincibles chased down the target with 16 balls to spare.