Zooper Dooper of the Day - SMRITI MANDHANA

Zooper Dooper of the Day - SMRITI MANDHANA

The popularity of Women’s Cricket is rapidly rising all around the world. The women have poured their heart out on the cricketing field and are showing the world that cricket is not just a ‘gentleman’s game.

Players like Sarah Taylor, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Devine, Suzie Bates, and our very own Mithali Raj have some impeccable records in the game which make them no less than their male counterparts.

One such player who has made it big in the game for India is none other than the 22-year-old left-handed batswoman Smriti Mandhana.

Born on July 18, 1996, Cricket was a big thing in Mandhana’s family. Both the father and brother, Shravan, played cricket for Sangli at the district-level which really inspired her to take up cricket after watching her brother at many Under-16 tournaments. Her brother and father helped her learn the game and got into coaching.

After giving some really amazing performances, the left-handed batswoman was selected in Maharashtra’s Under-15 team. It should be noted that she was just nine years old when she selected in the side. Meanwhile, at the age of 11, she was included in the Maharashtra Under-19s team.

She did not take much time to show her skills to the world when she got her breakthrough in October 2013. She became the first Indian woman to achieve a double-hundred in a one-day game. Playing for Maharashtra against Gujarat, she played an unbeaten knock of 224 runs off 150 deliveries in the West Zone Under-19 tournament, at the Alembic Cricket Ground in Vadodara.

The left-handed batter made her Test debut in August 2014 against England at Wormsley Park. She was really instrumental in the team’s victory as she scored a crucial half-century (51) in the second innings of the match. Chasing 182, she stitched an amazing opening-wicket partnership of 76 runs with Thirush Kamini. 

The state of women’s cricket in the country was not that good and the players were all set to grab any opportunity that they got. One such chance came in the year 2016. It was Women’s Challenger trophy, Mandhana played some really beautiful innings and scored three half-centuries for India Red in as many games and helped her team win the Trophy by making an unbeaten 62 off 82 balls in the final against India Blue.

By amassing a total of 192 runs, she emerged as the tournament’s top-scorer. 

Her moment of glory came in the year 2016 when in the second ODI game of India’s tour of Australia at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart, Mandhana scored her maiden international century (102 off 109 balls) but the game ended in a losing cause for the Women in Blue. Even at the age of 20, she had the courage to take on the world-class bowlers. By seeing her performance, she also became the only Indian player to be named in the ICC Women’s Team of the Year 2016.

2016 turned out to be the best year for her. After performing in all the formats of the cricket, Mandhana became a worldwide sensation when she, along with Harmanpreet Kaur, became the first player to play the popular Women’s Big Bash League in Australia. She signed up a one-year deal with Brisbane Heat for the league.

In 2017, she got injured while playing for Melbourne Renegades in WBBL and was ruled out for the whole tournament. 

The biggest moment of her career came when she was included in the team for the highly-prestigious 2017 ICC Cricket World Cup (Women’s). She was coming into the team after recovering from an injury she sustained during the WBBL. She started her World Cup campaign by scoring an amazing 90 against England in Derby, in the first of the group matches. Her performance became the highlight of the match and helped India won the match by 35 runs. She was named ‘Player of the Match’ for her amazing knock.

The next game proved to be even better, she scored a mesmerizing century and remained unbeaten on 106 in a game against West Indies during the World Cup.

The batter was a part of the playing XI that went on to play the finals of the World Cup. But they lost the final to England by nine runs.

In 2019, she achieved one more feat in her amazing career, when she scored the fastest half-century for Indian in Women’s Twenty20 Internationals off just 24 deliveries against the White Ferns in the month of February.

By seeing her unbelievable performances in the ODI cricket, the 22-year-old batter was named ‘Women’s Cricketer of the Year’ and ‘Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year’ by International Cricket Council (ICC).

With such performances, Smriti Mandhana has shown all the young girls around the nation that if you have the talent and the dream of playing the game for India, they surely can. She is also one of the most talented players in the world who has made Women’s Cricket so popular all around the world.

Now, by showing her class in the ongoing ODI series against England, she has once again shown everyone that she is becoming a matured player as she now starts to build her innings and they go berserk once she settles in.

For her numerous records and a beautiful knock of 63 to take her team home, Smriti Mandhan is our ‘ZOOPER DOOPER OF THE DAY’.

from SportsFlashes.com https://ift.tt/2SrsLVB