India’s cricket sensation, Smriti Mandhana, has marked another milestone in her illustrious cricketing career. She has joined a rare league of women cricket players to have scored more than 10,000 international runs. She is only the fourth woman to achieve this milestone.
A Landmark Achievement in Women’s Cricket
Mandhana attained the 10,000-run mark in the fourth T20 international match against Sri Lanka on Sunday. This is a great achievement for Mandhana, making her part of cricket history. She is indeed the second Indian female cricketer to attain this honour, and she follows in the footsteps of Mithali Raj, who holds the record for most runs in women’s international cricket with 10,868 runs.
Mandhana is definitely in the list of top-rated female cricketers worldwide, as she is second to Suzie Bates of New Zealand with 10,652 runs and behind Charlotte Edwards of England with 10,273 runs.
Fastest to 10,000 Runs
What is more astonishing is that Smriti Mandhana achieved this feat of surpassing the 10,000 mark in the shortest possible time. She reached this milestone in only 281 innings.
For example, Mithali Raj achieved this feat in 291 innings, while Suzie Bates and Charlotte Edwards took 308 and 314 innings, respectively. The speedy achievement of this prestigious milestone by Smriti Mandhana reveals her consistency and incredible performance in international cricket.
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Historic First in the Sri Lanka Series
Mandhana’s path to reach the milestone of 10,000 runs was halted during the fourth T20I match against Sri Lanka, as she required another 27 runs to reach the milestone.
She achieved this feat in the 15th over when she hit a single off the left-arm spinner Nimasha Meepage to long-on. Smriti scored an impressive knock of 80 runs from 48 balls, helping India achieve a record opening partnership of 162 runs along with Shafali Verma. This partnership also set a new record for India in the format of T20I.
Further, in the same innings, Mandhana’s onslaught contained three sixes, which makes her the leading six-hitter for the Indian team in the T20 International Matches, leaving Harmanpreet
A Stellar Year for Mandhana
Smriti Mandhana has had a remarkable year in 2023, as she continued to impress the world with her performances at the international level. At the start of the year, she was one of the main contributors to the Indian triumph in the Women’s World Cup.
Mandhana broke the record of becoming the first female cricketer to score 1,000 runs in the ODI format within a calendar year, and she also finished the year 2023 at the top of the list of the highest run-scors, with 1,362 runs to her name. For reference, the second-highest scorer, Laura Wolvaardt from South Africa, had 1,174 runs.
Mandhana also impressed when it came to consistency, hitting five ODIs, just like Tazmin Brits and Laura Wolvaardt from South Africa, in the year 2023.
Next, Women’s T20Is
Breaking Records Besides her success in ODI matches, this year Smriti Mandhana created history by notching the second position among female players in crossing the total of 4,000 runs in international T20 matches. After her name on this chart comes Suzie Bates with a total of 4,716 runs in T20 Internationals.
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