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Knews Desk– Cricket has not got a place in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2026, but the performance of the Indian women’s cricket team in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 is still remembered. In that tournament, India played brilliantly and won the silver medal. The role of star opener Smriti Mandhana was most important in this historic success. With her explosive batting, she gave a strong start to the Indian team throughout the tournament and laid the foundation for victory in many matches. Women’s cricket was included in the T20 format for the first time in the 22nd Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham. The world’s top women’s teams took part in it. The Indian team performed brilliantly and reached the finals, however, it had to face defeat at the hands of Australia in the title match and India had to be satisfied with the silver medal.

Smriti Mandhana was India’s most successful batsman throughout the tournament. She scored 159 runs in five matches and stood third in the list of highest run-scorers. Only Sophie Devine of New Zealand and Beth Mooney of Australia were ahead of her. Mandhana adopted an aggressive style in every match and maintained constant pressure on the opposition bowlers. Smriti remained at the forefront not only in terms of scoring runs but also in terms of strike rate. Among batsmen who scored 100 or more runs, her strike rate was 151.42, which was the highest in the entire tournament. She was the only batsman to score more than 100 runs while batting at a strike rate of more than 150. Her fast batting put India in a strong position in many matches. Smriti Mandhana also held the record of hitting the most sixes in the tournament. He hit a total of six sixes in five matches, the most by any batsman. Apart from this, he also hit 23 fours. In this way, she hit a total of 29 boundaries and became the batsman who scored the most boundaries in the entire tournament. His aggressive batting gave the Indian team a consistent fast start.

Apart from Smriti Mandhana, captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma and Renuka Singh also made important contributions in India’s silver medal win. The team made it to the finals by defeating strong teams like Pakistan, Barbados and England. However, India had to face defeat in a close match against Australia in the final. Now cricket has not been included in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games of 2026. In such a situation, India will not have a chance to win a medal in cricket. Nevertheless, the performance of the Indian women’s team at Birmingham 2022 and the explosive batting of Smriti Mandhana will always be remembered in the golden pages of Indian sports history. Her brilliant inning of 159 runs and her strong performance throughout the tournament is proof that she is one of India’s most reliable batsmen on the big stage.