Stats: Harmanpreet Kaur completes 2000 runs in T20I cricket

India Women sealed the 6-match T20I series against South Africa Women at home as they recorded their 3rd straight win. The 2nd and 3rd T20Is were abandoned and an extra game was fitted between the last two matches of what was planned to be a 5-match series. India Women came into this series having lost each of their last seven T20I matches. But a collective effort from the spinners and the contributions from the top-order saw them dominate the South African team.

In the 5th T20I on Thursday, the visiting side was limited to just 98/8 in the 20 overs. India Women struggled to get going in the chase as they were 28/3 by the 7th over. However, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur came to the rescue with a crucial 50-run partnership with Deepti Sharma. Harmanpreet stayed till the very end to take her team past the finishing line by hitting the winning runs. She remained unbeaten on 34 off 32 balls as India completed the chase with 17 balls to spare and with five wickets in hand.

The boundary with which Harmanpreet Kaur brought an end to the game helped her to complete 2,000 runs in T20I cricket. She was on 1,999 runs in the shorter format prior to that shot. She is now only the 8th player overall and the 2nd from India to complete 2,000 runs in T20 Internationals. Mithali Raj was the first Indian woman to accomplish this feat. She announced her retirement from this format just before the series against South Africa. Mithali is the 6th highest run-getter in Women’s T20Is with 2,364 runs.

Five players achieved this feat in Men’s T20Is including two Indians – Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma but only after Mithali completed this milestone last year. Kaur completed 2,000 runs in her 99th T20I match; the most number of appearances by any Indian in T20I format across Men’s and Women’s cricket. She thus went past MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma who featured in 98 games apiece. Rohit equalled Dhoni during the recent home T20I series against South Africa earlier this month.

Here’s the list of batswomen with 2000+ runs in Twenty20 Internationals:

(Stats as on October 3, 2019)