Industry Odisha Bureau, Sep 06: Smriti Mandhana scored her 18th international century on Thursday. The innings came against Hong Kong in Dubai. It came during the 2026 Women’s T20 Asia Cup. The century made her cricket’s leading century-maker. She also passed Mitali Raj’s international run record. Her achievement reflects a dramatic late-career acceleration.
Mandhana reached the century in just 57 balls. She surpassed the joint record of 17 centuries. That mark belonged to Meg Lanning and Laura Wolvaardt. Her 18 centuries span three formats internationally. Fourteen came in ODIs, two in Tests. Two more arrived in T20Is.
She was eventually run out for 124 runs. That innings pushed her career tally to 10,880. She overtook Mitali Raj’s previous mark of 10,868. The margin between them was just 12 runs. Mandhana became women’s cricket’s all-time leading run-scorer. Her 124 also set a new Asia Cup record. It surpassed Chamari Athapaththu’s 119 not out from 2024.
Seven sixes against Hong Kong pushed her T20I tally to 95. That makes her India’s leading six-hitter in the format. Globally, her six-hitting tally ranks fourth-highest. Only Harmanpreet Kaur’s eight sixes rank higher for India. Mandhana’s second T20I century was also historic. She became the first Indian woman with multiple T20I hundreds.
Her path to milestones started slowly, then sped up. Her first century came in her 32nd innings, in 2016. Reaching five centuries took another 115 innings. Ten centuries required 92 more innings after that. Then just 18 innings separated centuries ten through fourteen. Nine more innings brought her fifteenth century. Only seven additional innings delivered her seventeenth. She broke the record in her 303rd innings. Ten of her 18 centuries came in two years.
That pace stands out against other leading century-makers. Lanning needed just 123 innings for ten centuries. Wolvaardt, Bates, Beaumont and Matthews all reached ten faster too. Mandhana took 239 innings to reach the same mark. Her rise came later, but accelerated sharply afterward.
Format-wise, her Test average stands at 52.53. Her ODI record includes 5,411 runs and 14 centuries. In T20Is, she has scored 4,681 runs. Her overall batting average across formats is 38.86.
Her 303 innings mark the fewest among top run-scorers. Mitali Raj needed 314 innings for her tally. Stefanie Taylor and Charlotte Edwards also needed more innings. Mandhana’s strike rate of 99.57 leads this group. She became the fastest woman to 10,000 runs. That milestone came in just 281 innings.
Batting average remains one area behind Mitali Raj. Raj’s average of 46.64 still leads the category. Mandhana’s record instead rests on volume and speed. After the Hong Kong innings, she called it “just the start.”
