The forgotten firsts of women's cricket

It was Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, former captain of India, who defined cricket as a hard game played hard by men using a hard ball! These words were penned by him in his autobiography “Tiger’s Tale”, which was published in 1969, when the former skipper was at the peak of his powers. This work stood out as one of the first books of this genre written by an Indian cricketer. Further, given the stature of Pataudi as a former prince and a celebrated player, this book attracted considerable attention in the domestic and international media circles as well.

Four years after Pataudi wrote this book, England hosted the first-ever World Cup cricket championship, exclusively for women, in 1973. That this took place two years before the much-flaunted Prudential Cup was played in 1975 for the world championship of men’s cricket is a fact that remains buried in the annals of cricket history. For the record, six teams participated in the world championship for women in 1973, which was won by England, who were led by the legendary Rachel Hayhoe Flint. Incidentally, this is only the first of the several “firsts” achieved by women over their male counterparts in cricket.

Incidentally, the first T20 International was also played by women, about six months before the first international game played by the men in this version. New Zealand women’s team took on England ladies in a T20 International at Hove on 5 August 2004. The Kiwi women won the match by a margin of 9 runs, with Rebecca Rolls, the wicket keeper for the winning side, being awarded the Player of the Match title for her innings of 32. The first T20 International in the Men’s category took place in February 2005, when New Zealand played Australia in Auckland. However, the Kiwi men could not replicate the magic of their female counterparts, as Australia won by 44 runs. The Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting, who top-scored with an unbeaten 98, was named as the Man of the Match.

Presently, the highest run scorer in T20 Internationals is Suzie Bates, the woman cricketer from New Zealand, with 4739 runs to her credit. Babar Azam of Pakistan, with 4596 runs, is placed second, while Smrithi Mandhana, with 4500 runs, occupies the third position. It is not very well known that Smrithi has scored more runs than Rohit Sharma (4231runs ) and Virat Kohli (4178) in this version of the game at the international level. Harmanpreet Kaur is placed immediately after Kohli with 4160 runs to her credit.

Suzie Bates was also the first cricketer to reach 3000 runs in T20 Internationals. She was followed by Virat Kohli soon after. But Kohli pipped her at the 4000 runs mark, reaching there first. Suzie is turning out for New Zealand in the ongoing International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s T20 World Cup and hence stands an outside chance of reaching the 5000 run mark as well!

Men can claim some satisfaction when it comes to bowling, as Rashid Khan of Afghanistan is currently the highest wicket taker in T20 Internationals with 165 scalps to his credit. He is followed by Tim Southee of New Zealand with 164 wickets. Off-spinner Deepti Sharma of India is the highest wicket-taker amongst women with a haul of 152 wickets, which places her in third place in the combined list of men and women. Incidentally, Deepti is the only cricketer from India, men and women combined, to cross the 150-wicket mark in T20 Internationals.

It was again a woman cricketer who first breached the 100-wicket mark in T20 Internationals. Anisa Mohammed, an off-spinner hailing from Trinidad, achieved this landmark while playing for the West Indies against Australia in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup final in 2016. It was only three years later, in 2019, when Lasith Malinga of Sri Lanka picked his 100th wicket in this format that a man could reach this milestone.

The domination of women continues in the area of wicket-keeping also. Alyssia Healy of Australia occupies the pole position with respect to catches and stumpings with a total haul of 126, with 63 pickings under each category. Quinton de Kock of South Africa is placed second behind Alyssia with 117 dismissals (98 catches and 19 stumpings). Joe Butler of England comes at no: 3 position with 108 dismissals (89 catches and 19 stampings).

The spread of game to all parts of the world has resulted in the entry into international cricket of sides from nations where cricket is a relatively new sport. But this did not prevent Argentine women from scoring a mammoth 427 runs in their T20 match against Chile, which remains the highest total in this version of the game. This match, which took place on 13 October 2023 at Buenos Aires, also saw Lucia Taylor and Albertina Galan of Argentina involved in a 350-run stand for the first wicket, which also remains a record for the highest partnership in T20 cricket. Not surprisingly, Argentina won the match by 364 runs, the largest margin of victory in T20 Internationals.

Given this background, it is not surprising that Harmanpreet Kaur, the captain of the national women's side, became the first ever cricketer to play in 200 T20 Internationals. This took place when she walked out to bat in the match against South Africa at Manchester in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup championship during the week that went by. One interesting fact here is that the top 5 positions are all held by women, with Smrithi in fifth place with 169 games. Amongst men, the cricketer who has taken part in the highest number of T20 Internationals is Paul Stirling of Ireland, with 163 appearances to his credit. Rohit Sharma, with 159 matches, is placed second.

Ever since she made her debut in international cricket, against Pakistan in 2009, Harmanpreet has remained a trend setter in Indian women’s cricket. Her aggressive approach, ability to judge the game shrewdly and fearless stroke play marked her out as different from her compatriots. These abilities led to her appointment as captain of the national T20 side in 2012. It was her astounding knock of 171 not out against Australia in the ICC Women’s World Cup in England in 2017 that gave a huge boost to the status of women’s game in India and placed it on a pedestal comparable with that of the men’s game in the popularity charts. It was under her leadership that India won the 2025 ICC World Cup championship held at home. She has been a highly inspirational figure for millions of aspiring women cricketers the world over and is one of the great icons of Indian women’s cricket. Her achievement of playing 200 T20 International matches deserves a long round of applause as it highlights her discipline and dedication to the sport.

What would Tiger Pataudi have said had lived to see women scale these peaks in T20 cricket? It can be said without an iota of doubt that Pataudi was completely untouched by misogyny and his defection from cricket was made based solely on how the sport was played during his active playing days. One is certain that he would have offered a wry smile and congratulated the women for their achievements. And modified the definition of the game as “a hard game played hard using a hard ball”!