Follow UsSmriti Mandhana lit up the national capital with her scintillating performance in the third ODI against Australia at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Chasing a mammoth score of 413, Mandhana got going from the moment India’s chase began and didn’t spare any bowler who came on to bowl. She took a special liking to off-spinner Ash Gardner and smashed a four and a six to welcome her to the bowling crease.
Despite Pratika Rawal and Harleen Deol falling early, Mandhana notched up a brilliant 121-run partnership with Harmanpreet Kaur in just 69 deliveries to help India keep themselves ahead in the chase. The pair was easily keeping India’s run-rate over 10 an over, and Mandhana completed a half-century in just 23 deliveries, which was also the fastest for an Indian woman in ODIs.
She kept the tempo high even after her fifty and took just 27 more deliveries to score the next fifty runs, and brought up her century in just 50 deliveries. If seen across genders, this was the fastest hundred by an Indian batter in ODIs, surpassing the 52-ball ton that Virat Kohli scored in 2013 in Jaipur while chasing 360 against Australia.
Eventually, a slow high full toss from Grace Harris brought her anti-climactic fall, but not before she had scored the second fastest ODI hundred by a woman ever, just behind Meg Lanning’s 45-ball century against New Zealand in 2012/13.
50 balls - Smriti Mandhana vs AUS, Delhi, 2025
52 balls - Virat Kohli vs AUS, Jaipur, 2013
60 balls - Virender Sehwag vs NZ, Hamilton, 2009
61 balls - Virat Kohli vs AUS, Nagpur, 2013
62 balls - KL Rahul vs NED, Bengaluru, 2023
*Both Men & Women included