Smriti Mandhana scored her sixth ODI century on Sunday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru against South Africa during India’s series opener in the multi-format series against the Proteas.
The opener scored 116 off 127 balls. This is Mandhana’s second century against the South Africans, the first coming back in 2018 when she amassed 135 runs at the Kimberley ground in South Africa.
This score coincidentally remains her highest ever in the ODI format.
Interestingly, this is Mandhana’s highest-ever score inside India in ODIs. Prior to this, she had scored a knock of 86 against England in Nagpur back in 2018.
At 111, Mandhana went for the maximum towards mid-wicket but Marizanne Kapp was there, with her eyes lit up. Unfortunately for the South African side, Kapp fluffed the catch, giving Mandhana a new lease on life.
It was just six runs later that Masabata Klaas scalped Mandhana’s wicket when the batter went for a big shot towards deep backward square leg and Sune Luus was present there to send the centurion back to the pavilion.