Smriti Mandhana's knock of 39 runs against Sri Lanka on Saturday helped her to become the third Indian player to reach the milestone of 2000 runs in Women's T20Is.
India’s ever-elegant opening batter Smriti Mandhana on Saturday (June 25) bagged another fantastic achievement in her flourishing career.
Mandhana reached the 2,000 runs milestone in her T20I career, becoming only the third Indian women’s star to do so after legendary Mithali Raj and India’s current all-format skipper Harmanpreet Kaur.
The left-hander achieved the feat playing against Sri Lanka in the penultimate T20I of the ongoing three-match series in Dambulla.
Smriti Mandhana made a sedate but crucial 39 off 34 deliveries at the top of the order for India. When he reached her 28th run for the innings, the 25-year-old pulled off another magnificent achievement in her career.
Also Read: Smriti Mandhana: Fearless teenagers adding to high spirits of the team
Mandhana became only the third Indian women’s cricketer with 2,000 T20I runs or more in her career hitting Sri Lankan bowler Chamari Athapaththu for a boundary when she was batting 25 off 25 in her innings.
She is also the fifth Indian overall to amass 2000 runs in T20I cricket (both men’s and women’s).
Smriti Mandhana became the 5th Indian player to cross the milestone of 2000 runs in T20Is today.
3313 – Rohit Sharma
3296 – Virat Kohli
2364 – Mithali Raj
2355 – Harmanpreet Kaur
𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟭 – 𝗦𝗺𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗮#SLvIND | #CricketTwitter— Prasenjit Dey (@CricPrasen) June 25, 2022
With India chasing a tricky target of 126, Mandhana played her part in guiding her team towards a victory and an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Personally though, it’s not the 39 runs or an Indian victory, but reaching the 2,000 run milestone that would’ve felt immensely satisfying for Mandhana.
The 25-year-old has reached there in her 86th T20I game for India, approaching the fixture with 1,972 runs at an average of 25.61 and strike-rate of 120.46.
Before Smriti Mandhana, only Raj and Kaur could claim to have reached 2,000 runs in women’s T20Is. Overall, Mandhana is now only 12th women’s better in the history of the game to have bagged the highly impressive milestone.
