Elegant Indian opener Smriti Mandhana on Saturday joined the elite list of Indian cricketers after slamming her 6th international T20 century against Australia in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
On Saturday, Smriti Mandhana scored 83 runs off 55 deliveries, which is also the highest score by any Indian (men or women) against Australia in T20 World Cup, and powered India to 167/8 in their allotted 20 overs.
With the help of the blistering 83, Mandhana has now become the third Indian after former skipper Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur to go past the 1000-run mark in T20Is.
2283 runs in 80 innings – Mithali Raj
1870 runs in 81 innings – Harmanpreet Kaur
1012 runs in 49 innings – Smriti Mandhana
It was also Smriti Mandhana’s first fifty-plus score in the WWT20, during her innings the SouthPaw scored nine boundaries and three sixes.
Smriti Mandhana also became the second fastest to reach the mark of 1,000 runs in T20Is. The number one spot in the list is reserved by Mithali Raj.
Speaking about her innings at the post-match presentation ceremony, Smriti Mandhana said, “I was disappointed with the way I was getting out in the first few games and wanted to make it count today (Saturday). I always enjoy batting with Harry (Harmanpreet Kaur) and it’s very easy to keep up the run-rate when we both bat. Against a good side (like Australia), you need to come good and today it clicked for our team.”