Virat Kohli on Wednesday came under fire for posting Punam Raut's image while congratulating Mithali Raj for her incredible feat. Mithali, the Indian women's team captain, on Tuesday became the first player to cross the 6,000-run mark in the history of women's ODI cricket. Mithali surpassed former England captain Charlotte Edwards's record of 5992 runs.
Congratulatory messages soon started to flow on social media platforms for the Indian women's skipper and the India men's team captain Kohli too joined the bandwagon.
Kohli posted congratulatory messages on Twitter and Facebook to wish Mithali. He wrote: "A great moment for Indian Cricket, @M_Raj03 becomes the highest run scorer in Women's ODI Cricket History today. Champion Stuff!"
However, the fans quickly reminded Kohli that the picture he used on Facebook was that of Punam Raut and not Mithali. As he was getting trolled for his unintentional mistake, Kohli removed the post from Facebook.
Meanwhile, Mithali's incredible feat could not prevent the Indian women's team from suffering a huge loss against Australia. India's semifinal hopes suffered a major jolt after Australia notched up a comfortable eight- wicket win, riding on a superb show by their top-order batswomen.
Put into bat, opener Punam Raut's fighting century and a 69 from Mithali enabled India to post a decent 226 for seven in their sixth group league encounter. However, Australia overhauled the target with 29 balls to spare, scoring 227 for two, courtesy some fantastic batting display by skipper Meg Lanning (76 not out) and Ellyse Perry (60 not out).
After this loss, India are now placed at the fourth spot with eight points. Mithali's team will have to win its next and final league match against New Zealand to make the knockout stage.
