India women and England women took on each other in the only Test of the series. The two sides met at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in London from July 10th, and the game began with India coming in to bat first after losing the toss. It is worth noting that the game was extra special for Smriti Mandhana.
Notably, the only Test was Smriti Mandhana’s 300th international appearance. Interestingly, she also became the youngest to play 300 international matches. Furthermore, she is the 12th player in women’s international cricket to achieve the feat and the third Indian after Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur.
Coming in to bat first, Mandhana put forth a brilliant performance, opening the innings for India. Smriti was put under pressure early on as Shafali Verma was dismissed for a duck, with Yastika Bhatia adding 12 runs to her name. However, despite the early wickets, Mandhana held her calm and scored 83 runs in 108 deliveries.
With her knock, Mandhana also overtook Mithali Raj in the list of players with the most runs in Women’s Test cricket. She now sits as the third player in the list, as she has 718 runs to her name in 15 matches.
Smriti Mandhana opened up on playing her 300th international game
Before day 1 of the clash against England, Smriti Mandhana took centre stage and talked about playing her 300th international game. She opined about coming back to play her 300th international game at the Lord’s Cricket Ground and how special the occasion is for her.
“I actually got to know about the 300th international match last night. As a player, you don't really keep track of games across all formats. I remember playing the 2017 World Cup final here at Lord's. I didn't have a great World Cup then, and I didn't know if I'd get the chance to play for India again. So to come back and play my 300th international match at Lord's, I couldn't ask for a better venue,” Mandhana said.
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