Smriti Mandhana creates T20I history, achieves what no one has been able to across men’s and women’s cricket | Cricket

India women continued their brilliant run of form in the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup 2026. The side kicked off the tournament with a win against Pakistan and followed it up with another sensational victory against the Netherlands. Across the two innings, there have been several performances that have stood out for the Men in Blue. 

However, very few of them have been as impactful as the performance of ace batter Smriti Mandhana. Kicking off her World Cup campaign with back-to-back half-centuries, the star batter has been in sublime form, and with a knock of 74 runs in 47 deliveries against the Netherlands, Mandhana also achieved a huge feat. 

The 29-year-old scored 11 fours and one six in her knock against the Netherlands. Doing so, she surpassed the tally of 600 fours in T20I cricket; she has a total of 604 fours in 168 T20I matches. A feat that no one but her has been able to achieve across men’s or women’s cricket.

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Mandhana won the Player of the Match award for her performance

For her brilliance against Netherlands, Smriti Mandhana also won the Player of the Match award and talked about how she has experience of batting in Leeds due to her time in The Hundred. She also appreciated her opponents for their efforts in the clash. 

“I think it was a good batting wicket for sure. I mean, whenever we have come to Leeds, I’ve played a few matches here in the Hundred, but it’s always been a good batting wicket and a quick outfield. And again, I mean, Netherlands did a really good job today. (On preparing to face a team India had never played before at this level) Well, of course, it’s like unknown territory for all of us. We’ve not seen a lot of them. So we had to go through a lot of videos in terms of how they bowl and how we willl be approaching the game,” Mandhana said in the post-match presentation ceremony. 

With back-to-back wins secured, India will be taking on South Africa next. The two titans of women’s cricket will lock horns and take on each other at Old Trafford in Manchester on June 21st. 

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