Smriti Mandhana broke yet another record in what has been a terrific 2024 for the Indian opener with her 77 vs West Indies.
Smriti Mandhana’s terrific run of form in 2024 continued as her record-breaking year had another milestone added with her terrific performance against the West Indies in India’s 60-run victory over the West Indies in the deciding match of their three-match series at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
Smriti Mandhana plays a shot during the third T20I vs West Indies.(PTI)
Mandhana’s half-century against the Windies, where she scored 77(47), helped India to 217/4 in the first innings. This performance has also taken her total number of 50+ scores in women’s T20I cricket matches to 30. Mandhana has now scored the most 50+ scores in the format, overtaking New Zealand’s Suzie Bates, who has 28 fifties and one century.
The Indian opener, who is looking to become the next skipper for the women’s team as successor for Harmanpreet Kaur, stood in as captain in the second and third T20Is. Mandhana scored a half-century in every match of the series, top-scoring in the three-match bout with 193 runs across three strong performances.
Her performance in the third T20I included a seven-delivery spell where she scored a boundary of every ball, totalling up for 30 runs in a strong streak. Mandhana has scored a whopping 763 runs in T20Is in 2024, the most of any player, averaging 42.38 and striking at a strong 126.53.
Mandhana looks to close out stellar 2024 in style
Her strong streak in T20Is brings a close to a fantastic year for Mandhana, who also captained Royal Challengers Bangalore to the WPL title for the franchise’s first success across India’s domestic franchise league.
The southpaw also scored four centuries in ODIs, which is the most by a player in one calendar year, becoming the first batter to do so, while also overtaking Harmanpreet Kaur and Mithali Raj in the list of WODI centuries by an Indian batter by taking her total to 9.
To put the cherry on top, Mandhana also scored her second Test century, with a sublime 149 against South Africa in Chennai during India’s win in the one-off Test against the Proteas. A stellar year was only dampened by India’s group stage exit in the Women’s T20 World Cup.
Attention for the women’s team will now turn to the three-match ODI series against the Windies, set to be played in Vadodara, as the team’s preparations for the home ODI World Cup late in 2025 begin.
