Smriti Mandhana records most runs in a calendar year in WT20Is

There are three certainties in life — death, taxes, and Smriti Mandhana breaking a batting record in 2024. This time, it’s the record for most runs scored in a calendar year in T20Is by a woman. She scored 73 in her last T20I game of the year, taking her tally to 763 T20I runs in 2024. Mandhana bettered Sri Lanka's Chamari Athapaththu's 720 runs, also scored in this calendar year itself. 

This happened during the third T20I between India and West Indies women in a packed DY Patil. The elegant left-hander also reached the zenith of 50-plus scores in WT20Is by going past Suzie Bates’s record of 29 50-plus scores in the format. Only in the last game, she went past Bates’s record of 28 half-centuries in the format. 

She made it three half-centuries in a row in the series and her fourth across formats in the third T20I after scoring 77 off just 47 deliveries. 

Mandhana just saw the first two overs off, but a merciless onslaught began in the powerplay. She scored five boundaries and a six on six consecutive deliveries she faced from Chinelle Henry and Deandra Dottin in the third and fourth over. The six she hit off Dottin over extra cover was just the chef’s kiss as she bent her knee, made room, and smacked the ball over the boundary for a maximum. 

This knock of 73 was her eighth 50-plus score this year, taking Mandhana to the top of the list of most 50-plus scores for a batter in a calendar year, surpassing Mithali Raj's seven. Remarkably, despite scoring the most ODI centuries for India in history, Mandhana is yet to score a T20I century. 

Due to her's, Richa Ghosh's and Raghvi Bist’s contributions, India also reached their highest ever total in WT20Is in the game, finishing at 217/4.