By Shweta Jena
Indian opening batswoman Smriti Mandhana reached a significant milestone in Sunday’s Women’s World Cup 2025 match against Australia by surpassing the 18-run mark at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. The 29-year-old accomplished the feat off Sophie Molineux’s bowling in the eighth over of the innings, becoming the first player in women’s cricket history to reach 1,000 ODI runs in just one year.
By gliding down the track and hitting the spinner for a six in the direction of long-on, Mandhana reached the milestone. In the recent match against South Africa, she broke Belinda Clark’s 1997 record of 970 runs, and now owns the record for most runs scored in a single calendar year.
During the match against Australia, she became the youngest and fastest player to reach the 5000-run milestone in women’s ODIs. After hitting 80 runs off 66 balls with nine fours and three sixes, the left-hander finally made her way back to the hut.
The left-handed batter is now behind Mithali Raj, Charlotte Edwards, Suzie Bates, and Stafanie Taylor in terms of runs scored in women’s ODIs. Along with Suzie Bates, she also has the second-highest total of hundreds in women’s ODIs.
She broke Virat Kohli’s record of 52 balls to reach the milestone, setting a new record for the quickest century by any batsman , during her most recent match against Australia.
Mandhana, who is participating in her third World Cup, was a member of the team that advanced to the 2017 final but lost to England at Lord’s Cricket Ground at the last second.
Healy, the captain of Australia, chose to bowl first against India in Vizag after winning the toss. India remained the same for the pivotal match, but Australia made one change to their starting XI, replacing Georgia Wareham with Sophie Molineux.
After losing to South Africa earlier this week, India is hoping to get back to winning ways.
Conversely, Australia has yet to lose in the competition. Rain forced the Southern Stars to postpone their match against Sri Lanka.