Smrithi Mandana scripts history; becomes first Indian woman to score pink-ball Test ton
The Indian women’s cricket team opener Smriti Mandhana became the first Indian woman to score a century in a pink-ball Test on October 1 on Australian land. Interestingly, it is the first occasion for the Indian women to be playing a Test match under the lights.
It was Shafali Verma, a fellow opener, who was complimenting Smriti very well with a consistent knock during the match and Smrithi played a 127-run knock against Australia in the one-off Pink Ball Test. Smrithi had ended day 1 against Australia on an unbeaten score of 80 and one the next day Smrithi took 171 balls to cross the triple-digit mark and got out for 127 runs at the match in Carrara, Queensland.
Before Smriti Mandana’s achievement, it was Indian cricket star Virat Kohli who had become the first Indian cricketer in the men’s game to have scored a hundred in pink-ball Test, doing so against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens.
Smriti Shriniwas Mandhana is an Indian cricketer who plays for the Indian women’s national team. In June 2018, the Board of Control for Cricket in India named her the Best Women’s International Cricketer. In December 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) awarded her with the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Award for the best female cricketer of the year. She was also named the ODI Player of the Year by the ICC at the same time.
Her first breakthrough came in October 2013, when she became the first Indian woman to achieve a double-hundred in a one-day game. Playing for Maharashtra against Gujarat, she scored an unbeaten 224 off 150 balls in the West Zone Under-19 Tournament, at the Alembic Cricket Ground in Vadodara. Mandhana also holds the record of being the Indian woman with the highest individual scores in Australia across formats.
