Smriti Mandhana Shatters Huge World Record, Enters Elite Women's T20I List

Star batter Smriti Mandhana shattered a huge India record during the 1st Women's T20I against Sri Lanka in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. The 29-year-old became the first Indian to breach the 4,000-run mark in women's T20Is. Overall, she is the second after New Zealand's Suzie Bates, who has scored 4,716 runs in 177 matches. In the first T20I against Sri Lanka, Mandhana scored a run-a-ball 25 before holing out in the ninth over of India's 122-run chase. However, Mandhana is quickest to do so in terms of balls taken (3227) than Bates, who took 3675 balls to reach the 4000 runs milestone.

This was Smriti's first appearance since the ODI World Cup final where India defeated South Africa to win their first title last month.

Also, Mandhana is just 42 runs away from scoring 10,000 runs in women's international cricket. Mandhana has notched up 4007 runs in T20Is, 5322 runs in ODIs, and 629 runs in Test cricket to date.

Coming to the match, Jemimah Rodrigues slammed a match-winning, unbeaten half-century that helped the Harmanpreet Kaur-led India Women to a dominating eight-wicket win against Sri Lanka Women in the series opener on Sunday.

With this commanding win, the Women in Blue took a 1-0 lead in the ongoing T20I series against Sri Lanka.

While chasing a 122-run target, Jemimah hammered an unbeaten 69 runs off 44 deliveries, with the help of 10 fours that helped India Women to chase down the target in just 14.4 overs. Jemimah also equalled Mithali Raj's four 50-plus scores against Sri Lanka in T20Is.

During the chase, Mandhana and Jemimah stitched a crucial 54-run partnership for the second wicket that put India into a commanding position.

Jemimah also stitched an unbeaten 55-run stand for the third wicket with captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who made an unbeaten 15 that helped the Women in Blue win the first T20I by eight wickets.

Earlier, after being asked to bat first, Sri Lanka Women were restricted to 121/6 in their 20 overs. Sri Lanka opener Vishmi Gunaratne was the top scorer for the visitors, scoring 39 off 43 balls.

Among the bowlers, Deepti Sharma was the most economical, returning figures of 1/20 in her four overs, which included a maiden. Kranti Gaud finished with 1/23 from three overs, while Shree Charani conceded 30 runs and picked up one wicket in her four overs.

(With ANI Inputs)

Topics mentioned in this article

India Women Sri Lanka Women Smriti Mandhana Cricket