Follow UsSmriti Mandhana has been in good form in the Women’s ODI Tri-nation series in Sri Lanka involving South Africa and Sri Lanka, apart from India. She took that to the next level in the final against the hosts and scored her 11th ODI century in just 92 deliveries at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
Mandhana, who stepped out to bat after skipper Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and chose to bat first, looked to be the one who kept the scoreboard ticking with boundaries at regular intervals as her opening partner Pratika Rawal took her time to get going.
Mandhana used her feet brilliantly against spinners in the powerplay on both the front and backfoot, hitting boundaries over the infield and also bisecting the fielders on the off side. She scored as many as 15 fours in her innings of 116 runs in 101 deliveries, and also smashed two big sixes down the ground. With those two maximums, Mandhana overtook Harmanpreet in the list of most sixes for Indian Women in ODIs.
Meanwhile, en route to her century, she also stitched a 70-run partnership with Rawal, which is the opening pair’s ninth 50-plus partnership in just 11 innings while opening the innings. Only Jaya Sharma and Karuna Jain have more 50-plus opening partnerships than Mandhana and Rawal — 11 in 25 innings.
With 11 centuries now under her belt, Mandhana is third on the list of most centuries scored in Women ODIs, only trailing Meg Lanning (15) and Suzie Bates (13). She is second on the list of most away centuries in ODIs (5) as well, with only Lanning (6) having scored more away centuries than her.
Mandhana was finally dismissed in the 33rd over, with the team score being 190/2 and looking good to cross 300 at the end of 50 overs.
15 - Meg Lanning
13 - Suzie Bates
11 - Smriti Mandhana
10 - Tammy Beaumont
6 - Meg Lanning
5 - Smriti Mandhana
4 - Suzie Bates
4 - Charlotte Edwards
4 - Hayley Matthews