Smriti Mandhana breaks 28-year-old record in ODI cricket

Smriti Mandhana has created a new record in women’s ODI cricket by scoring 23 runs in the match against South Africa. She is the player who scored the most runs (982) in a calendar year, she surpassed the record held by Australian legend Belinda Clark, who had scored 970 runs in 1997.

Mandhana achieved this milestone during India’s Women’s World Cup 2025 match against South Africa in Visakhapatnam, where she went past Clark’s tally and took her own total for the year 2025 past 970 runs. Despite not being in the best form in the 2025 World Cup, Mandhana is close to reaching the 1000-run mark.

The 10th match of the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup between the hosts India and South Africa Women’s teams is being played in Visakhapatnam. In this match, Team India, who lost the toss and batted first, got a good start. Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal shared a 55-run partnership for the first wicket.

However, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana, who has been struggling with poor form in the World Cup, failed to play a big innings for the third consecutive match. Mandhana, who had a good start in this match, lost wickets again. Smriti, who faced 32 balls in her innings, scored 23 runs with 1 four and 1 six. Having failed to perform as expected in the first two matches, Mandhana was expected to play a big innings in today’s match. But Mandhana was not able to do it.

However, by scoring 23 runs in this match, Mandhana managed to break a record that was exactly 28 years old. Smriti, who played an innings of 23 runs against Africa, has thus become the player who has scored the most runs in a calendar year in women’s ODI cricket. Before Smriti Mandhana, the record for most runs in a calendar year in women’s ODI cricket was held by former Australian player Belinda Clarke, who scored 970 runs in ODIs in 1997.

Smriti’s 12-run knock against South Africa took her total to 982 runs in ODIs in 2025. With this, Smriti has broken Belinda Clarke’s record of 970 runs. If Mandhana scores another 18 runs in the next match, she will become the first player to reach 1,000 runs in a calendar year in women’s ODIs.