Smriti Mandhana : The Cricket Crush of INDIA

Smriti Mandhana (born 18 July 1996) is an Indian cricketer who plays for the Indian women's cricket team.

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Early and personal life

Mandhana was born on 18 July 1996 in Mumbai to Smita and Shrinivas Mandhana. When she was two, the family moved to Madhavnagar, Sangli in Maharashtra, where she completed her schooling. Both her father and brother, Shravan, played cricket at the district-level, Sangli for She was inspired to take up cricket after watching her brother play at the Maharashtra State Under-16s Tournaments. At the age of nine, she has been selected in the Maharashtra's Under-15 team. At eleven, she was picked for the Under-19s team.

Mandhana's family is involved in her cricketing activities. Her father Shrinivas, a chemical distributor, takes care of her cricket program, her mother Smita is in charge of her diet, clothing and other organizational aspects, and her brother Shravan still bowls to her in the nets.

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Career

Domestic level career

Mandhana's first breakthrough came in October 2013 when she became the first Indian woman to achieve a double-hundred in one-day game. Playing for Maharashtra against Gujarat, she scored an unbeaten 224 off 150 balls in the West Zone Under-19 Tournament, at the Alambic Cricket Ground in Vadodara.

In the 2016 Women's Challenger Trophy, Mandhana scored three half-centuries for India Red in as many games, and helped his team win the trophy by making an unbeaten 62 off 82 balls in the final against India Blue. With 192 runs, she emerged as the tournament's top-scorer.

In September 2016, Mandhana signed up for a one-year deal with Brisbane Heat for the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), and along with Harmanpreet Kaur, became one of the first two Indians to sign up for the League. Playing against Melbourne Renegades in January 2017, she falls awkwardly while fielding after bowling the final ball of her over hurting her knee. She was ruled out of the rest of the tournament which she ended having scored 89 runs in 12 innings.

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International level career

Mandhana made her debut in August 2014 against England at Wormsley Park She helped her team win the match by scoring 22 and 51 in her first and second innings, respectively; In the latter innings, She shared in an opening-wicket partnership of 76 runs with Thirush Kamini, chasing 182.

In the second ODI game of India's tour of Australia in 2016, the Bellerive Oval in Hobart, Mandhana scored his first international hundred (102 off 109 balls), in a losing cause.

Mandhana was the only Indian player to be named in the ICC Women's Team of the Year 2016.

Mandhana came in the team for the 2017 World Cup after recovering from an injury she sustained, an earlier cruciate ligament rupture, during her time at the WBBL in January that year. In her five-month recovery period, she missed the World Cup Qualifier and the Quadrangular Series in South Africa. She started the World Cup with a 90 against England in Derby, in the first of the group matches She helped her team win by 35 runs, and was named the player of the match. Mandhana was part of the Indian team to reach the final of the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup where the team lost to England by nine runs.