12 years on: Revisiting Smriti Mandhana’s match-winning fifty on her Test debut
India recently won their one-off WTest against England at Lord’s, carving history. Smriti Mandhana scored a half-century in both innings, extending her dominance to another historic chapter.
As Mandhana continues to weave magic with her bat, today marks 12 years since it all started for the RCB skipper in whites.
Smriti made her Test debut on August 13th, 2014, in Wormsley. India were up against an England side that featured a flurry of impressive names. Both sides couldn’t come up with something significant in the first innings. England were bundled out for 92 in the first innings, while India could only rack up 114.
Mandhana registered 22 runs from 67 balls, opening the innings alongside Thirush Kamini. The Indian bowlers recreated their dominance in the second innings too, bundling out England for 202. Jhulan Goswami claimed four wickets to lead the Indian charge.
Mandhana then came out firing on all cylinders in the second innings, laying down the brickwork of India’s successful chase. She joined forces once again with Thirush Kamini, adding 76 runs for the opening wicket. Mandhana brought up the first half-century of her Test career.
Her steady 51 gave India a fine platform, and that was more than enough for Mithali Raj and Shikha Pandey to eventually scale the rest of the summit.
Since then, Mandhana has been part of nine WTests, amassing 788 runs at an average of 52.53. From the 16 innings that she has batted in, Smriti has racked up two centuries and five half-centuries.
