Indian opener Shafali Verma has created a world record during the India vs Sri Lanka T20 World Cup 2024 clash on Wednesday, October 9. Shafali has achieved a massive milestone during the repeat clash of the Women's Asia Cup final at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Shafali has become the youngest-ever cricketer to smash 2000 runs in T20I cricket. At 20 years and 255 days old, Shafali broke the record previously held by Ireland's Gaby Lewis, who was 23 years and 35 days old when she reached 2000 runs in the format.
Shafali needed 18 runs to reach the milestone and she got there in the fourth over of India's innings when the opener punched a flat delivery towards long-on.
Youngest to 2000 runs in WT20Is:
1 - Shafali Verma: 20 years and 255 days old
2 - Gaby Lewis: 23 years and 35 days old
3 - Stafanue Taylor: 24 years and 279 days old
4 - Hayley Matthews: 25 years and 200 days old
5 - Smriti Mandhana: 25 years and 342 days old
India opted to bat first against Sri Lanka in Dubai. The Women in Blue are in a race to reach the semifinals but are in a precarious position. India have won one out of two matches coming into the Sri Lanka clash. They have two points: they are tied with New Zealand and Pakistan and behind Australia.
India went with the same team for their clash against the Lankan Lions with Pooja Vastrakar still not in the team. She was part of the first clash but missed the second game due to a niggle.
"We gonna bat first, so far we haven't batted first so thought we will have a bat and put a decent total on the board. Feeling better (talking about her neck injury), if we play better cricket maybe I will feel more better. Asia Cup we played good cricket, one odd day (talking about the final where India lose to Sri Lanka) they played good cricket. We are going with the same eleven we played in the same game," Harmanpreet said at the toss.
Sri Lanka Women (Playing XI): Vishmi Gunaratne, Chamari Athapaththu(c), Harshitha Samarawickrama, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani(w), Ama Kanchana, Sugandika Kumari, Inoshi Priyadharshani, Udeshika Prabodhani, Inoka Ranaweera
India Women (Playing XI): Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Richa Ghosh(w), Deepti Sharma, Sajeevan Sajana, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Renuka Thakur Singh
