India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana added another feather to her illustrious cap as she became the first women’s cricketer to complete 11,000 runs in international cricket during the Asian Games final against Sri Lanka on Tuesday at Korogi Sports Park. Mandhana recently became the highest run-scorer across the three formats in women’s cricket when she surpassed legend and former India captain Mithali Raj’s record of 10,868 runs during the recently concluded Asia Cup. Coming into the final, Mandhana had 10,987 runs to her name – 788 runs in Tests, 5411 in ODIs and 4788 runs in T20Is – and needed only 13 to get to the elusive mark.
As India look to defend their gold medal in the Asiad final, Mandhana achieved another historic record.
She surpassed previous record-holder and former New Zealand great Suzie Bates during her 37-run outing against Bangladesh women in the Asian Games semifinal. The India-Sri Lanka clash is the rematch of the 2023 Asiad and also the rematch of the Women’s Asia Cup earlier this month, both of which the Women in Blue defeated the Sri Lankan side. Mandhana had recently become the highest run-scorer in T20I cricket across the men’s and women’s game. India, the defending gold medallists, came into the final after beating Japan and Bangladesh in the quarterfinal and semifinal, respectively. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka got the better of Malaysia and Pakistan in their previous two matches to make their way into the gold medal game.
