Smriti Mandhana creates history: First woman to score 1,000 ODI runs in a year, fastest to 5,000 career runs
India witnessed a historic day in Women’s cricket on October 12, as Smriti Mandhana became the first women’s ODI cricketer of the world to score 1,000 runs in a calendar year.
Aadrika Tayal 
New Delhi (India) October 12: Left-handed opening batswoman Smriti brought up the achievement by improving upon a score of 18 runs. The remarkable feat came in an exciting game against Australia at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam.
At the age of 29, she made history, notching her 1,000th run when bringing up her century by pulling Sophie Molineux in the eighth over of India’s innings.
Fastest journey to 5,000 ODI runs
But that was not all! She set the record for being the youngest and fastest woman to reach 5000 runs in ODIs in that game. She was dismissed with a well made 80 from just 66 balls including nine boundaries, and as many sixes.
Mandhana’s consistency through the year
By 2025, Mandhana had already scored four hundreds and four fifties in her career. But the sound of her bat was dampened on this Women’s World Cup, as she collected scores of 8, 23 and 23 in her last three knocks.
Historic milestone in women’s cricket
In the all-time women’s ODI run-getters list, Smriti sits at number five, behind greats such as Mithali Raj, Charlotte Edwards, Suzie Bates and Stafanie Taylor. She is also second on the list for centuries in women’s ODIs.
In the last match against South Africa, Mandhana overtook Belinda Clark’s world record of 970 runs making her year-end tally as the highest scorer ever in a calendar year.
Partnership with Pratika Rawal
During the World Cup toss, Mandhana and her partner Pratika Rawal were dealt a difficult hand when India lost the toss for the fourth time. This time they had the pressure to give a decent start and they did just that. Even as Australia threw everything at them — pace and spin — Mandhana and Rawal turned a landmark chapter in India’s cricket history.
