India Women’s team captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, made history by becoming the first player to participate in 150 matches in the T20I format. The 33-year-old cricketer achieved this feat during India’s last match of the group stage in the ongoing ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. In a rain-affected match at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Monday, February 20, India defeated Ireland by five runs through the DLS method.
New Zealand batter Suzie Bates holds the second position in the list with 143 appearances, while India vice-captain, Smriti Mandhana, is third with 115 games. On the other hand, India men’s team captain Rohit Sharma stands ahead with 148 appearances since his debut in 2007.
Harmanpreet equalled Rohit’s record in the T20 World Cup match against West Indies Women and surpassed him after playing the match against England last week. She made her T20I debut in 2009 at the County Ground, Taunton, in the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 against England.
During the match against Ireland, Harmanpreet won the toss and elected to bat first. She expressed her happiness on reaching this milestone, “It means a lot, I got an emotional message from my teammates. Thanks to BCCI and ICC, we are able to play so many games,” Kaur said at the toss.
In the match, Harmanpreet and her team displayed an excellent performance against the Laura Delany-led side. Mandhana played an exceptional inning, scoring her career-best T20I score of 87 off 56 balls, including nine fours and three sixes. India posted a total of 155 runs.
Ireland Women were 54/2 from 8.2 overs while chasing 156 runs, but the match was abandoned due to rain, with Gaby Lewis 32 still at the crease. As Ireland was five runs behind the DLS par score of 59, India was declared the winner of the rain-marred match. With three victories out of four matches, India has now qualified for the semi-finals along with England from Group 2.
