Harmanpreet Kaur Creates History, Breaks Massive Record Held By Mithali Raj
Photo : SLC
The Indian women's cricket team won a historic series against England in England, even though they lost the final T20I at Edgbaston, Birmingham on July 12 (Saturday). Harmanpreet Kaur led her team to a first women's T20I series win on English soil, thus securing a major landmark in her captaincy career. She could not contribute much with the bat having scored just 15 runs. However, in spite of this poor show, the Indian captain managed to create history. She broke a big record that was held for three years by legendary batter Mithali Raj.
Harmanpreet Kaur played her 182nd T20I on Saturday. She has also played 146 ODIs and six Test matches. In total, she has played for India at the international stage in 334 games. This makes her the Indian with the most appearances in women's international matches in the history of the game. She broke the record of the legendary Mithali Raj, who played 333 international games across all three formats for India from 1999 to 2019.
Here are the Indian women with the most international matches in history:
| Player |
Number of Matches |
| Harmanpreet Kaur |
334 |
| Mithali Raj |
333 |
| Jhulan Goswami |
284 |
| Smriti Mandhana |
261 |
| Deepti Sharma |
239 |
Across all formats, the 36-year-old Indian captain has scored eight centuries and 85 fifties, including a highest score of 171, which is the highest individual score in the history of women's ODI cricket.
Harmanpreet is now third on the list of women with the most international appearances in history. She is behind New Zealand Suzie Bates (346 matches) and Australia's Ellyse Perry (337 matches).
England Win Final T20I
England won the toss and elected to bowl first in the fifth T20I at Edgbaston. India posted a modest total of 167/7 at the end of their 20 overs. Smriti Mandhana continued her sparkling form with the bat as she top scored with 75.
In what proved to be a nail-biting chase, England pulled the victory off in the last ball of the match with 5 wickets in hand. Dani Wyatt-Hodge was the key batter for England, scoring 56 runs. She was given able support by Spohia Dunkley (46) and captain Tammy Beaumont (30). India, however, won the series by a margin of 3-2.
