Milestones. That’s the one big word every cricketer seeks, but only a few are able to reach. But when it concerns some timeless jewels of the women’s games- forces that are dominant in the current context of the game- then no challenge seems unattainable. Big runs, fluent fifties, cartwheeling wickets- they all become a regular feature when some of the current stars engage in 20-Twenty tussle. So that prompts us to wonder: which players could be approaching key milestones in Women’s T20 World Cup 2020?
Is there a massive run-tally up someone’s grab or a huge pile of wickets that’ll make a name second to none in the wicket’s column?
Let’s figure the key milestones in Women’s T20 World Cup 2020:
Meg Lanning: the Mega-Star
When the talks concern someone like Meg Lanning- Australia’s superstar and much-respected leader- one cannot think of the batter in isolation of records.
This, after all, is an outstanding name in the great game that has inspired and entertained in equal measure.
For starters, how brilliant is a batting average of 36- something that most male cricketers fail to attain- in T20 internationals?
But wait, there’s more! The first Australian cricketer- male or female- to reach 2,000 T20I runs is also the holder of the record of most runs in T20 cricket in a single calendar year: thus far, no other cricketer in the women’s game has bettered Lanning’s tally of 625 runs.
Let it not be forgotten that the batting maestro is also the holder of yet another emphatic feat, a sublime one at that: the highest-individual score in the T20 World Cup match- her 126 versus Bangladesh in 2014 edition.
At present, the great Meg Lanning is just 2 games away from featuring in her 100th T20 international appearance.
Note, thus far, the Singapore-born Australian has collected 2656 runs from 98 T20s, with a highest of 133*, including 2 tons and 13 fifties.
Stafanie Taylor: The Caribbean Leader
The West Indies have a giant among their ranks in Stafanie Taylor, their most fluent scorer in T20 cricket as also their most consistent.
The mighty Jamaican is an easy-going but passionate, determined but simpleton in cricket’s grandest stage.
Thus far, the fine all-round cricketer has scored 2900 T20 career runs from just 100 games, from which she’s carved 21 fifties and a highest score of 90.
Well, for starters, most talents, one reckons, would dream of playing a single T20 world cup in their careers. Here’s someone who’s already scaled the most important landmark many would die for: starring in 100 T20Is!
But among the milestones in Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 up ahead, there’s one Taylor would be staring at.
She’s just 100 away from reaching 3000 T20 runs. One wonders, what a fantastic feat would that be, right? At the same time, she remains just 203 adrift of scoring 1000 runs exclusively in Women’s T20 World Cup. Can one of the finest all-rounders in the current context and hero of the game reach there soon?
Note that of her 797 World T20 runs, she’s struck 6 fifties and 74 boundaries and is yet to better her individual score of 59.
Suzie Bates: The Smashing all-round sensation
Well, truth be told any side in the game- regardless of form or stature- would want to avail the services of someone like Suzie Bates, the former captain of the respected White Ferns.
For someone who’s been around even before the likes of Shafali Verma, Hayley Matthews, Amelia Kerr, and the likes arrived in the game, at 32, Suzie Bates is just as dangerous as she was over a decade back when she arrived in competitive cricket.
The scorer of the most T20 runs ever by a New Zealander in the women’s game, her checkered career standing tall at 3195 career runs, including 1 ton and 21 fifties, Bates is also the highest-ever scorer in T20 world cup history.
Currently, she tops the list of 10 batswomen with the most runs in the Women’s T20 World cup history with 881 runs.
This leaves us with a simple question.
Are there any milestones in Women’s T20 World Cup nearing Suzie Bates? Surely, and precisely- with 119 more runs, Bates will become New Zealand’s first woman cricketer to notch up 1,000 runs in T20 World Cup history.
And if that wasn’t enough, she’s also only 1 wicket away from collecting 50 wickets in T20Is, having clinched 49, thus far, from 78 bowling innings (115 games).
What an incredible feat just around you, Suzie! Go get it, ma’am.
Bismah Maroof: The Spirited leader
Pakistan’s captain and the ‘go-to’ figure in the post-Sana Mir era, Maroof will be the key lynchpin of the sub-continental side’s batting prowess in this mega-series.
A lot about what Pakistan end up putting on the board in the important contests ahead would rest on the left-hander’s craft and abilities.
In that regard, it’s only normal to expect the fluent scorer collect lots of runs for a team that has, thus far, never managed to go beyond the group stage in the T20 World Cup campaigns, where the records stand.
But that told, there is one among the key milestones in Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 that awaits Maroof’s grasp.
For someone who’s scored 464 of her 2183 T20I runs in the T20 World Cup games, Pakistan’s famous batter is just 36 away from the key milestone of completing 500 runs in the coveted tournament.
Also note, Bismah- whose highest T20I score is an unbeaten 70- has collected 3 of her 11 fifties in T20 world cup contests.
And that’s not all.
Pakistan would hope that their leader scores 7 more boundaries to touch another important milestone; that of scoring 200 boundaries in T20I cricket.
Mignon du Preez: The Spark of Proteas Fire
Well, frankly speaking, to have played every single edition of the coveted Women’s T20 world cup, beginning from 2009, then 2010, going into 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and now preparing to contest in the seventh edition is, in itself, an outstanding feat.
But there’s one among the big milestones in Women’s T20 World Cup that’s right up the great Mignon du Preez’ ally.
At 326 T20 world cup runs, having played 23 matches, the bedrock of the South African middle-order is just 174 runs away from reaching 500 runs in Women’s T20 world cup history.
And what a feat that would be if and when the experienced and tireless Protean can get there ahead.
Smriti Mandhana- the fearless dasher
The world suddenly appears a beautiful place to be in with Smriti Mandhana carving out the runs she so famously does with all the power and the eternal gift of timing.
The fans would hope that a lot of that happens in the days to come in the T20 Women’s World Cup 2020 edition.
Thus far, the fluent leftie- undeniably the most important batter in her side alongside her captain- has scored 1667 T20 runs from just 71 games, including a career-best score of 86.
But Mandhana too is nearing among the important milestones in Women’s T20 World Cup 2020.
So what is it?
Of her 1667 career runs, she’s scored 249 exclusively in T20 world cup games. This means she’s just a run apart from reaching the 250-run mark while being 50 away from reaching the other important milestone of 300 T20 World Cup runs.
So the question is, how soon can she get there? Well, recent form, exemplified by her 216 runs- the most in the women’s tri-series- seem to suggest hell, yeah.
Ellyse Perry: The Legendary all-rounder
This is a talent most dread going against and competing against yet someone that any team would love to have in their ranks.
Few names in the international sphere are as impactful to their side as they are dangerous to the opponents. Perry is a ray of light to the sunny Australian set-up and an ethereal talent takes keeps getting better, game after game.
A genuine wicket-taker, the medium-pacer has the carry and length to disturb anyone’s focus besides having all the strokes in her repertoire to assert her quintessential magic.
And she’s been doing that well over a decade in the highest annals of the game.
Well, time to pick another milestone, right?
For an outstanding athlete, who, yet again, won the Belinda Clark Award for the third time in her career (recently) which milestones in Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 beckon her attention?
At the moment, the gem of Australian cricket is just 15 away from reaching 300 T20 World Cup runs.
At the same time, she’s just 14 adrift from the cherished feat of 50 World Cup wickets, having already bagged 36- the most by any contestant ever in T20 World Cup history- ever.
That she picked 9 in the last edition- held in the Caribbean, in 2018- does indicate that the enviable 14-wicket mark may not be that difficult after all. But can the stylish all-rounder get there ahead?
Harmanpreet Kaur: The breezy, thunderous batter
The tide and fortune of India’s Women’s side rests in the hands of its mercurial batswoman, the incredible Harmanpreet Kaur. Kaur, especially in the absence of Mithali Raj- the senior statesman of the game who retired from the format- will be expected to deliver sensational runs and big scores in order to guide India to a position of dominance in the big contests up ahead.
At the same time, one of the finest batters in the game is nearing a big milestone. So which among the milestones In Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 is Kaur nearing?
Thus far Harmanpreet Kaur- with 2156 runs in T20 cricket- has scored 428 runs purely in T20 World Cup contests.
This means that she’s only 72 shy from reaching 500 runs in her T20 World Cup career.
Note- from 25 T20 World Cup games, Kaur has collected 1 fifty and 1 hundred, including her career-best 103 that came in the 2018 edition.
