CWG 2022 | Smriti Mandhana joins Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma in elite batting club

India Women registered their opening points at the 2022 Commonwealth Games with a thumping win over Pakistan.

Comfortable win for Team India

In a rain-curtailed match, the ‘Women in Blue’ overhauled Pakistan’s total with 6.2 overs to spare. The win made a drastic improvement to their net run-rate, one which took a minor setback after the opening defeat to Australia Women.

Smriti Mandhana scales new height

After Indian bowlers had restricted the Pakistani batters to just 99, openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana staged a rapid 61-run stand at the top of the order.

Moreover, Mandhana even stayed unbeaten till the end and landed the knockout punch with a boundary off Pakistan’s Fatima Sana in the 12th over of the innings.

The Indian vice-captain plummeted a fluent 42-ball 63* in an innings glittered with eight boundaries and three elegant maximums, and marked the 15th half-century of her T20I career.

Mandhana was at her absolute best against Pak

During the course of her run-chase special, she scaled 1,000 T20I runs while chasing, becoming only the third Indian cricketer to do so. Mandhana now stands at 1,059 runs in T20I chases, out of the 2,120 runs she has aggregated in her career.

The only other players with more than 1,000 runs in T20I chases are men’s cricketers Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

Indians with most T20I runs while chasing

1789 - Virat Kohli

1375 - Rohit Sharma

1059 - Smriti Mandhana

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian team will now face Barbados on August 3 to mark their final group game.

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