Indian women’s team cricketer Smriti Mandhana celebrates her 24th birthday on Saturday (July 18).
Born in 1996, the Mumbai cricketer is a stalwart of the Indian women’s cricket team.
She is considered as one of the best batswomen in the current generation and is even ranked No. 4 in ODI batting rankings and is the only Indian in the top 5 of the list.
She also captained women’s IPL team Trailblazers. The southpaw grabbed the limelight through stellar performances in the ICC Women’s World T20 in 2018.
Her 178-run streak in five matches earned her the tournament’s third-highest run aggregator. Since then there was no stopping her as she continued to pile up runs in international and Franchise cricket.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently also named her as the Best Women’s International Cricketer. Mandhana, with the rest of the Women’s national team, made it to the final of the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia but unfortunately got outclassed by the hosts in the finale of the tournament.
While netizens are making sure to wish the cricketer a very happy birthday, we have a look at the left-handed batswoman top 3 incredible knocks:
- Mandhana vs Supernovas in IPL: The 24 year old made a quickfire 90 against the Supernovas, steering the Trailblaizers to a total of 140 which the bowlers defended in a nerve-wrenching encounter.
- Mandhana vs New Zealand: During the 2019 tour of New Zealand, Smriti brought out her A-Game during the game at Napier. The Kiwis batted first and got bundled out for 192. The southpaw, however, scored an unbeaten 105 to guide India to a nine-wicket victory.
- Mandhana vs South Africa:Back in 2018, during India’s three-match ODI series against South Africa, Mandhana played an iconic 135-run knock in the 2nd match of the ODI after missing out in the first game. The number one ranked ODI batswoman guided India to a mammoth 302 runs, which proved to be too much for the Proteas. Mandhana’s heroics led India to a resounding victory by 178 runs.
