Mandhana’s 124 rewrites two records at once

Smriti Mandhana made 124 off 64 balls against Hong Kong China in the Women’s Asia Cup on 3 September 2026, and in doing so claimed two records that had stood under different names for years. She is now the leading century-maker and the leading run-scorer in women’s international cricket.

The records

Record	Previous holder	Previous mark	Mandhana
Most international centuries (women)	Meg Lanning (Australia)	17	18
Most international runs (women)	Mithali Raj (India)	10,868	10,880

Both fell in the same innings, against the same bowlers, in a group match India were always going to win. That is worth noticing. The stage was small; the achievement was not.

The innings

Runs	124
Balls faced	64
Fours	14
Sixes	7
Strike rate	193.75

This was only Mandhana’s second T20 international century. The first was 112 against England at Nottingham in 2025. The format does not produce hundreds often — the overs do not allow it — so reaching one while also passing two career landmarks is a density of milestones that almost never happens.

Shafali Verma made 28 off 17 balls at the other end, and India posted 193 for 5 in their 20 overs. Hong Kong collapsed in reply.

What the runs record means

Mithali Raj’s 10,868 runs were accumulated across all three formats over a 23-year international career that ended in 2022. She was the first woman to pass 10,000, and she did it while T20 internationals were still finding their place in the calendar.

Mandhana is 30. She debuted at 16. The pace at which she has reached this total is meaningfully different from the pace at which Raj built hers, because the volume of women’s international cricket has changed in the intervening years. More matches mean more chances to score, and Mandhana has had more of both.

That does not diminish the record. It does mean the two careers are not directly comparable, and anyone using the numbers to rank one above the other is ignoring what the numbers actually measure.

What the centuries record means

Meg Lanning’s 17 centuries came mostly in ODIs, the format where hundreds are structurally possible. She retired from international cricket in November 2023, and the mark stood for nearly three years.

Mandhana’s 18 break down as 14 in ODIs, 2 in Tests and 2 in T20 internationals. That distribution is the format telling on itself: fifty overs give a batter the most realistic route to three figures, while women’s Test cricket is played so rarely that two hundreds in it represents a large share of the chances she has had.

She also passed more than one player. Laura Wolvaardt was level with Lanning on 17, so the eighteenth moved Mandhana clear of both at once.

What it does not prove

Records are milestones, not arguments. Passing Lanning on centuries does not settle who the better batter was; it settles who played more innings and converted more of them. Passing Raj on runs does not settle who contributed more to Indian cricket; it settles who scored more in a game that now has more scoring opportunities.

The records are real. The rankings they imply are not, because they are comparing careers played under different conditions, different calendars, and different levels of access to the international game.

What the 124 does prove is narrower and more useful: Mandhana, at 30, is in form, is fit, and is converting starts at a rate that suggests the next record — whoever’s it is — will fall the same way.

What comes next

India play Pakistan on 5 September in their final group match. The semi-finals are on 10 and 11 September; the final is on 13 September. Four days after that, the same squad — with minor changes — begins the Asian Games in Japan, where the format is a straight knockout and there is no group-stage safety net.

The records will still be there in October. Whether they matter in September depends on what India win.