Smriti Mandhana became only the fourth batter in women’s international cricket to cross the 10,000-run mark. She became the second Indian to achieve the feat after Mithali Raj, who tops the all-time list with 10,868 runs. The other players ahead of Mandhana are New Zealand’s Suzie Bates (10,652 runs) and England great Charlotte Edwards (10,273 runs).
Mandhana reached the target in her 281st innings across formats, making her the fastest woman cricketer to do so. While Edwards and Bates required 308 and 314 innings, respectively, Raj achieved the feat in 291 innings.
Prior to Sunday’s fourth Twenty20 International against Sri Lanka, Mandhana was 27 runs short of the mark. She reached the feat when she smashed left-arm spinner Nimasha Meepage down to long-on for a single. She and Shafali Verma had an opening partnership of 162 runs, the most for any wicket in T20Is, and she concluded with 80 off 48 balls. Mandhana became India’s top six-hitter in Twenty20 Internationals after slamming three sixes in her knock, surpassing Harmanpreet Kaur.
The achievement completes a fantastic year for the vice-captain of India. Mandhana became the first woman to achieve 1000 ODI runs in a calendar year during their successful Women’s World Cup campaign, which concluded early last month. She also finished the year as the format’s top run scorer with 1362, followed by Laura Wolvaardt with 1174. Additionally, Tazmin Brits and Wolvaardt of South Africa matched Mandhana’s five ODI hundreds this year.
In the fourth women’s Twenty20 International, an all-around India defeated Sri Lanka by 30 runs and took a 4-0 lead in the five-match series in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday thanks to a record partnership between Smriti Mandhana (80) and Shafali Verma (79) and an outstanding 2/24 from spinner Vaishnavi Sharma.
Mandhana became the second player in women’s T20Is to reach 4,000 runs earlier in the series. Among the top run scorers in women’s Twenty20 Internationals, only Bates leads with 4716 runs.
