Siliguri girl Richa Ghosh continued her brilliant batting in Indian women team’s ongoing Australia tour even on Friday as she reached close to a half-century mark, much to the jubilation of cricket enthusiasts here.

Even though India lost at the last ball of the match, her crucial knock with ace opener Smriti Mandhana (86 in 94 balls) helped her team score a mammoth total of 274 for loss of seven wickets on Friday.

Ghosh scored the second highest for her team while batting at number five and made 44 with three boundaries and one shot over the rope, while facing total 50 deliveries.

“We are not surprised by her innings today. In the previous match, she had also shined with her bat. In that match, she batted at number seven and played an important partnership with Jhulan Goswami, which helped the team score 200-odd runs,” said Manoj Verma, the cricket secretary of Siliguri Mahakuma Krira Parishad, the subdivisional sports body of Siliguri.

In the nail-biting second ODI played at Harrup Park of Queensland on Friday, the local girl was found flawless in her innings and helped to build the foundation of the big innings of her team by adding 76 runs in partnership with Mandhana on fourth wicket and 28 runs with Dipti Sharma, before she got bowled by Tahila Mcgrath of Australia.

“She has proved that there is no point in sending her to bat at number seven. Today, the team management got the result by promoting her to number five. It is absolutely disheartening that her brilliant innings went in vain. But such efforts will definitely encourage more talents here and develop a confidence in them,” Verma added.

SMKP sources said they were planning a grand felicitation programme once Richa reached back Siliguri.

In the first ODI, she had made a 40-odd runs partnership with ace Indian pacer Goswami on eighth wicket and helped the team score 225.

Manavendra Ghosh, her father, was proud of her daughter’s performance, but because of some family engagements, could not watch the match till the end.

“This is her natural play. She used to open for Bengal in domestic tournaments. In her debut match at the World T20 final in Melbourne, she did not feel nervous. It is now proved that the team management is showing confidence in her batting and promoted her at number five for her big hitting capacity. I am happy that she did her job and performed well, but unfortunately, they lost the match,” the father said.

Jayanta Bhowmik, the former coach of ace cricketer and Siliguri boy Wriddhiman Saha, who presently holds the post of the chairman of the coaches’ committee of the districts’ sports bodies under Cricket Association of Bengal, was equally elated by Richa’s performance.

“She is a gem of a cricketer from the region. With her performance, she has managed to establish herself as an eminent face of cricket in Siliguri and in Bengal as a whole,” said Bhowmik.