Ace batswoman Smriti Mandhana recently achieved a career-best ranking on the batting list, in the updated ICC rankings released on Sunday evening. Following her extraordinary run-scoring season, despite losing a 0-3 in the three-match series against England women, Mandhana is one cricketer who is steadily making a mark. Earlier, she was declared women’s cricketer of the year by the sport’s world governing body.
Mandhana, who captained the Indian team while injured Harmanpreet Kaur is on rest, scored 72 runs in the T20I series against England women in Guwahati. Owing to her performance, Mandhana jumped three spots up to take the third position on the list.
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"The way we batted in last two-three overs . They had Mithali at the other end. It would have been sensible to take a single. She has enough experience to take us over the line. So, definitely, we will have a word with the youngsters," skipper Mandhana had said after the match on Saturday and a disappointing series.
Records by the batswoman
Mandhana is the first Indian to feature in England’s flagship T20 tournament for women. She scored an unbeaten 52 off 19 balls against Loughborough Lightning, creating a new record.
The 22-year-old Mandhana is only the second Indian woman to win an International Cricket Council award, fast bowler Jhulan Goswami being the first one who was named the women’s player of the year in 2007.
On her debut, Mandhana almost pulled off the fastest 50 in KSL’s history. She smashed as many as five sixes and three boundaries in that innings. Earlier in March this year, Mandhana smashed the fastest 50 ever scored by any Indian player in women’s T20I cricket. She achieved this in the opening innings against England in the third match of the women’s T20 tri-series at Brabourne Stadium.
She has been gaining fantastic and captained the Trailblazers in the one-off IPL exhibition game. The left-handed batswoman is a crucial player in the Indian women’s cricket team. She created history when she became the first Indian female cricketer to score a double hundred in a one-day game. She scored the fastest fifty ever scored by any Indian player in women’s T20I cricket. She achieved this in the opening innings against England in the third match of the women’s T20 tri-series at the Brabourne Stadium.
In 2016, after Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana had become the second player to sign an overseas Twenty20 franchise, the Big Bash League ( BBL). Again in the same year, she became the only player from the country to be named in the Women’s Team of the Year 2016, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced. Mandhana was also a crucial part of the team in last year’s World Cup finals. Considered as the favourite in women’s cricket, Mandhana helped India reach the final of the ICC Women’s World Cup in England last year.
Congrats to the feisty player!
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