Indian Women’s Cricket team Captain Harmanpreet Kaur became the most capped T20I Women player in the history of the shortest format of the game among Women. She achieved this career milestone on Wednesday during the on-going T20I series against World champions Australia.
Only two cricketers have played 140 or more T20Is – Rohit Sharma and Harmanpreet Kaur.
India's skippers 🤝 longevity. #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/fnrRIxR1Er
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) December 14, 2022
The third T20I between Australia and India being played at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai saw Harmanpreet Kaur become the only player in Women’s cricket to make the most appearances in T20 format. Last night she earned her 140th cap for India.
Her achievement is exemplary and it will come as a perfect example and motivation to countless aspiring young girls wanting to become cricketers. This has also come at the back of BCCI deciding to pay the Women’s lot the same as Men. And with the Women’s IPL also being planned, Harmanpreet Kaur’s less talked about milestone will boost the Board’s confidence on the Women’s team.
Meanwhile, the Indian Captain has played 125 innings across 140 matches for the senior national team. She has scored a total of 2736 runs with an average of 27.36. The 33-year-old has one Century and 8 half-centuries under her belt in the T20 cricket with the best score of 103.
As Harmanpreet became the most capped T20i player in Women’s cricket, she has gone ahead of many reputed Women cricketers around the world. She is followed by players like Suzie Bates (New Zealand, 139 T20Is), Danni Wyatt (England, 136 T20Is), Alyssa Healy (Australia, 135 T20Is) and Australian legend Ellyse Perry (129 T20Is).
If we talk about the ongoing 5-match T20I series between hosts India and Australia, then the Aussie Women have taken the lead in the series by 2-1. Australia won the first match with India winning the second and last night the 5-time T20 World champions took the lead once again as they defeated India by 21 runs.
While Batting first Australia had set up a target of 173 runs due to crucial contributions from the Bat of Ellyse Perry (75 off 47 balls), Beth Mooney (30 off 22 balls) and Grace Harris (41 of 18 balls). In response India managed to score 151 runs and fell short.
Opener Shefali Verma‘s 52, Harmanpreet Kaur’s 37 and Deepti Sharma‘s quickfire 25 went in vain as they look to focus on winning the 4th T20I on Saturday (17 December) in order to level the series by 2-2.
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