Smriti Mandhana’s batting is a thing of beauty, and therefore, a joy forever.

Its loveliness increases, too. Even John Keats, who penned those immortal lines in Endymion, would have approved.

Smriti’s batting is indeed poetry in motion. Her drives, her lofts, her dancing down the track, they are among the most pleasing sights in contemporary sport.

She uses the bat as a painter would use the brush. Even in the mad world of T20 cricket, where there isn’t the time to set up a canvas, she could compose enduring works of art. Like she did on Sunday, in the fourth T20I against Sri Lanka at the Greenfield Stadium.

During the course of her 48-ball 80, she recorded a significant feat. She became only the fourth woman in history to make 10,000 international runs.

And she is the second Indian to do it. The first one, Mithali Raj, was watching her do it from the commentators’ box. She was the second to join that exclusive club, which was founded by England’s Charlotte Edwards. Suzie Bates of New Zealand is the other member of this club.

Mithali is heading that list with 10,868 runs, followed by Bates (10,652) and Edwards (10,273). Smriti is the fastest to reach that mark, in her 281st innings, 10 less than her compatriot. She is only 29 and well poised to go on top.

Most of her runs have come against the white ball. That is because women get to play so few Tests. She has played just seven Tests, from which she has scored two hundreds. She has 14 centuries in ODIs and one in T20Is.

During the World Cup, in which she was the tournament’s second-highest scorer, she became the first woman to score 1,000 runs in ODIs in a calendar year. She will continue to create more batting records. And she will provide more joy, while making all those runs.

Published on Dec 29, 2025