Smriti Mandhana created history on Friday as she became the first Indian woman to score a Test hundred in pink-ball cricket on the second day of the pink-ball Test. This was also the first time Smriti reached the triple-figure mark in her test career.
Smriti looked confident and in great touch right from the start of the innings. The Indian opener played some glorious drives and impressive pulls in her innings. Smriti also had a little bit of luck in her favor, but she made the most of this opportunity. She reached the triple-figure mark in the 52nd over of the innings after smashing two fours off Ellyse Perry. Mandhana scored 127 off 216 balls including 22 boundaries and a six. She added a record 102 runs partnership for the second wicket with Punam Raut(36).
“Test cricket is always about different challenges and we would always want to play as many Test as possible”: Smriti Mandhana
“We just had two sessions with the pink ball. I was coming from the Hundred (in England) so I didn’t really get much time to play with the pink ball, but during Hundred, I just ordered a pink kookaburra ball, just to keep it in my room because I knew that there is going to be a Test match so that I can just look at the ball and understand.
“I have actually not batted, I batted for just two sessions but the pink ball was there in my kit bag for the last two and a half, three months. I don’t know why did I carry it, I thought I will have a session but I really didn’t get time to do that,” Smriti had said during a virtual press conference on Thursday.
Records Broken
1. Mandhana became the first woman to score a test century for India in Australia.
2. Smriti Mandhana’s 127(216) is the highest score by a visiting woman in Tests played in Australia.
3. She became the first Indian woman to score a half-century and century in a pink ball test.
4. Mandhana now holds the record of highest individual scores in Australia across formats as an Indian woman. In ODIs, Smriti has the highest score of 102 and in T20Is, the highest of 66 against Australia women Down Under.
5. Smriti became just the fourth women’s player and the first Indian woman to bag a century in both ODIs and Test.
6. This is the also fastest hundred by an Indian woman in Test cricket (170 balls).