India's Mithali Raj calls for more women's Twenty20 matches after leading Asia to victory over Africa

India's Mithali Raj has said she is delighted to go down in history as the winning captain in the first Afro-Asia women's Twenty20 match but has cautioned that the purpose of the match will be lost if more games of this format are not played on a regular basis.

Despite failing to score in the match in Bangalore last Tuesday, India captain Raj said she thoroughly enjoyed the latest version of the game

"Even though I had the disappointment of getting a third-ball duck, at the end of the day Asia won which is a far bigger achievement than a personal disappointment," she said.

"There is no greater feeling (than) to be the first woman to lead an Asian team to victory in the first-ever game of its kind.

"From what I can gather the purpose of the Asia versus Africa Twenty20 match was to promote women's cricket. From that prospective I think we all succeeded but I fear that in the long-run it will remain (an) unachieved (goal) if matches are not played on a more regular basis.

"The atmosphere in the ground was electrifying and it was a new experience to play a match that was being televised with legends of the game commentating on the proceedings. I think it was great for women's cricket," Raj said.

The Asia women beat Africa's women's by 60 runs on 5 June as Asia, batting first, scored 105 for nine and then dismissed its Africa counterparts for 45.

"It was a low-scoring game because both the teams had inexperienced players," said Raj. "But we would have more competitive and exciting games if we had best of the best from Australia, England and South Africa split into two teams," he said.

Continuing on her call for more Twenty20 games, she said: "Limited overs cricket is the most popular format of cricket and the organizers can cash in by hosting more women's Twenty20 games while the administrators can achieve their target of promoting women's cricket. It will be a win-win situation for all - players, administrators and organizers.

"If we have more women's Twenty20 games it will help the girls to be more aggressive and quicker thinkers. By virtue of playing more Twenty20, we will also be enhancing the quality of (our) Test or one-day cricket," she said.

Raj said she liked the initiative of staging a women's Twenty20 game before the men's Twenty20 game. "It would not be a bad idea if a women's one-day or Twenty20 game was followed up by the men's game. It will give more publicity and profile to women's cricket."

Raj did not hide her love for one-day cricket even though in August 2002, at the age of 19, she scored a double century (214) against England in a Test match at Taunton.

"Personally, I love one-day cricket because it is all about improvisation and fast thinking whereas Test cricket is about technique, endurance and patience, and Twenty20 is all about big hitting," said the player who led India to the Women's Cricket World Cup final against Australia in South Africa in 2005 and then inspired her team to back-to-back Asia Cup titles against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Raj has scored 572 runs from eight Tests as well as compiling 2,776 runs in 93 ODIs.