Smriti Mandhana Becomes Second India Woman Cricketer To Score T20 Century

Indian opener Smriti Mandhana continued her impressive run in the Women’s Cricket Super League with a stunning century, propelling Western Storm to a thumping seven-wicket win over Lancashire Thunder on Friday.

There is absolutely no stopping Mandhana in the ongoing Women’s Cricket Super League. And on Friday, she became the seond India woman cricketer to score a century in the shortest format of the game. She scored 102 as Storm chased down 153 with more than an over remaining.

The innings came off 61 balls and was studded with 12 fours and 6 sixes.

Batting first, the Thunder scored 153 for 7 in the allotted 20 overs.  Amy Satterthwaite starred with the bat, scoring an unbeaten 85. However, Mandhana’s knock completely overshadowed her effort.

Storm began their chase on a poor note. Rachel Priest returned to the hut after scoring just 5. Mandhana and Heather Knight then steadied the ship by adding 41 runs. Emma Lamb broke the stand by dismissing Knight. But before the Thunder could capitalise on the breakthrough, Mandhana and Stafanie Taylor shared an 105-run stand to all but seal the game. Storm eventually reached the target in the 19th over.

1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ for @mandhana_smriti #SmitriTheStorm #StormTroopers pic.twitter.com/Mo6rLZOEQF

— Western Storm (@_WesternStorm) August 3, 2018

Mandhana was in ominous touch as she has been all through the tournament, having scored 48, 37,  a record equalling 52 not out and 43 in the first four games. The 52-run knock had helped her  become the the joint-fastest half-centurion in women’s T20s. So far, she has scored a staggering 282 runs in just 5 games at an average of 94.

https://twitter.com/AsiaCup_U/status/1025421123658375168

The latest knock has only extended Mandhana’s love affair with England. She has become one of the Indian team’s batting mainstays since her exploits in last year’s World Cup in England.

So far, Smriti has hit 1464 runs from 41 ODIs, including three centuries and 11 fifties. She has also played 42 T20Is for India and has scored 857 runs at an average of 23.16.