Smriti Mandhana surpasses Harmanpreet Kaur, achieves huge feat with brilliant knock against Netherlands | Cricket

India women continued their campaign at the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026. The two sides met at Headingley in Leeds, and the game began with India coming in to bat first. The side opened its innings with Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma coming out to bat. 

After a brilliant knock in the first game, Mandhana continued her brilliant form and went on to score 74 runs in 47 deliveries, propelling the Women in Blue to a perfect start to the game. Scoring yet another half-century, Smriti Mandhana surpassed the tally of skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Mithali Raj. 

The star batter is now the player with the most half-centuries for India in Women’s T20 World Cups. Both Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur have five half-centuries each to their names, and with the knock against the Netherlands, Smriti Mandhana has six. 

Furthermore, with Shafali Verma adding 55 runs to her name in 38 deliveries, this was also the second instance of both India openers going past the score of 50 in a Women’s T20 World Cup game. Overall, this is the 15th instance in the tournament’s history. 

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Harmanpreet Kaur gave her take on the conditions

Before the start of the clash, India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur took centre stage and talked about her decision to bat first despite the difficult conditions in Leeds. She talked about how it could prove to be a challenge for the Women in Blue due to the overcast weather in the city. 

“I think it’s a very great opportunity for us to bat first because it’s a little hard condition due to the overcast weather, but I think we want to bat first and we wanted to challenge ourselves. (On areas India wants to improve despite a convincing opening win) I think the powerplay with both bat and ball is something we are really looking forward to improving. Hopefully today we will bat positively in the powerplay and, while bowling, if we can get a few wickets in the powerplay, that will be important,” Harmanpreet Kaur said at the toss. 

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