When Smriti Mandhana scored her 18th international century against Hong Kong at the Women’s T20 Asia Cup in Dubai on Thursday (September 3, 2026) — in just 57 balls — she set a new record for scoring the highest number of centuries in women’s international cricket across all formats.

However, the century, which cemented India’s victory in the match and broke Australian Meg Lanning and South African Laura Wolvaardt’s jointly-held record of 17 international centuries, did not end Smriti’s record breaking spree.

By the time she was run out for 124, she had overtaken her former captain Mithali Raj’s to become the highest run-scorer in women’s international cricket.

She had taken her career tally to 10,880 runs, 12 more than Mithali’s previously held record of 10,868 runs.

Her score was also the highest in the history of the Women’s T20 Asia Cup, surpassing Chamari Athapaththu’s 119 not out from 2024.

Her seven sixes against Hong Kong took her career tally to 95, making her the leading six-hitter for India in women’s T20Is and the fourth-highest in the world.

Those seven sixes were also the second-most by an Indian woman in a single T20I innings, behind Harmanpreet Kaur’s eight during her century against New Zealand.

With her second T20I hundred, Smriti became the first Indian woman to score multiple centuries in the format.

She also equalled Mithali’s record of 93 fifty-plus scores across international cricket The pace Mandhana’s century-making was a slow burn before it became a sprint.

Her first hundred came in her 32nd international batting innings in 2016, but it took 115 more innings and five years to reach her fifth century.

She needed another 92 more innings to get to 10, and then the sprint started.

Just 18 innings separated her 10th and 14th centuries, nine more took her to 15, and only seven more to 17, when she equalled Meg and Laura’s record.

Then there was a pause, before she broke their record in her 303rd international innings.

Ten of her 18 centuries came within the last two years.

That acceleration becomes even more striking when placed alongside the other top five century-makers.

Meg Lanning reached five hundreds in 70 innings and 10 in 123, just about half the number of 239 innings that Smriti took to score her tenth century.

All the other four also crossed the milestone of ten centuries before their 200th innings.

Laura Wolvaardt took 144 innings to reach five, but only 18 more to get to 10 and another 44 to reach 15.

Suzie Bates reached five in 105 innings and 10 in 199, while Tammy Beaumont reached those marks in 88 and 181.

Hayley Matthews reached her fifth century in 156 innings and her 10th in 189.

But for Smriti, who was slower to cross the early milestones, the performance soared after she crossed her 200 innings.

Where the hundreds came from Of Smriti’s 18 centuries, 14 have come in ODIs, two in Tests and two in T20Is.

That is striking given that she has played more T20Is than ODIs — 173 compared with 120, predominantly as the opening batter in both the formats.

In ODIs, she has scored 5,411 runs and 14 hundreds.

In 16 Test innings, she has two hundreds and averages 52.53.

In 167 T20I innings, she has 4,681 runs.

Across all three formats, she has 10,880 runs, 75 fifties and an average of 38.86, showing that her track record is built on consistency as much as several spectacular peaks.

Smriti Mandhana surpasses Mithali Raj as women’s international cricket’s leading run-scorer Moreover, it is the pace at which she has accumulated her runs that really sets her apart.

Smriti’s 10,880 runs have come in 303 international batting innings — fewer than any of the other four players among the five leading run-scorers, all of whom except Stafanie Taylor are now retired from international cricket.

Mithali needed 314 innings to make 10,868 runs, Stafanie 307 for 10,005, Charlotte Edwards 316 for 10,273 and Suzie Bates 352 for 10,740.

Her career international strike rate of 99.57 is another outlier.

It is nearly 10 points higher than Suzie, the next fastest among the five, and more than 30 points higher than Mithali Raj.

She had already become the fastest woman to reach 10,000 international runs, doing so in 281 innings.

Batting average (38.86) is the only indicator where Smriti lags behind, but that too only against her compatriot and inspiration Mithali, who is far ahead than the other top scorers with an average of 46.64.

Smriti is in the same league as the others with only the former West Indies captain Stafanie holding a marginally higher batting average of 40.02.

A few years back, she had said that her mother taught her to persevere — “to go on till reaching the top”.

She also said she wanted to be the best batter in the world.

At just 30, she has now reached a rather literal version of that ambition, but as she said in the press conference after the Hong Kong match that “it is just the start”. devyanshi.b@thehindu.co.in