India’s Smriti Mandhana continued her fantastic run of form to smash the joint-fastest T20 half century of all time as she took just 18 balls to get to her 50 in a rain-hit match in Taunton in the KIA Super League on Sunday.
Playing for Western Storm – the first Indian to feature in England’s flagship T20 tournament for women – Mandhana finished with an unbeaten 52 off 19 balls against Loughborough Lightning, with 5 fours and 4 sixes in a six-over-per-side match. She got to the landmark in style with a six.
She came close to pulling off the fastest fifty in KSL history on her debut, when she was dismissed for a 20-ball 48 against Yorkshire Diamonds in a successful run-chase. She smashed as many as five sixes and three boundaries in that innings.
Earlier in March this year, Mandhana smashed a half-century in 25 balls for India against England to better her own 30-ball 50 record she had set a few days before against Australia.
The overall record for the fastest fifty in women’s T20s belongs to Sophie Devine (18 balls) of New Zealand – a record that Mandhana now co-owns.
Mandhanan’s side, the defending champions, won by 18 runs.
The 22-year-old has been in fine form in 2018 and recently captained the Trailblazers in the one-off IPL exhibition game. She has scored 826 runs with a high score of 76 in 40 T20Is and 1464 runs in 41 ODIs at an average of 37.53 with a high score of 135.
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