The Mumbai born girl has showed some fearless batting in starting matches of ICC Womens World cup, where she opened the innings with Poonam Raut, but her form has faded a little since then. Though Smriti Mandhana has impressed one and all with her beautiful looks and is allready ruling the hearts of many. A blisterring hundred against West Indies in 2017 Womens World cup is allready a highlight of her career. As this Mumbaikar turns 21 today, we discuss some of the interesting facts about this southpaw.
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- She was inspired to take up cricket at a very young age of 6, getting influenced by her brother who played for Maharashtra Under 16 team.
- She is two of the Indians who took part in Women’s Big Bash League ( WBBL ) and played for Brisbane Heat alongside with India’s t20 captain, Harmanpreet Kaur who played for Sydney Thunder. However, Mandhana could not play the full season as a result of her knee injury that ruled her out of the innaugral tournament.
- She was the only Indian who was named in the ICC Women’s team of the year in 2016.
- Her first ODI century came against Australia in Hobart (Australia ) where she knocked a punch of 102 runs.
- She later on moved to Sangli from Mumbai, a small district in Maharashtra and completed her schooling from there.
- She was the first Indian woman to score a double hundred in a one day game, playing for Maharashtra against Gujarat in October 2013.
- Her inspiration was Sri Lanka’s legend, Kumar Sangakkara and she often used to copy him in the nets which was not liked by her coach.