Record-breaking Mandhana ton seals India’s semi-final spot

Smriti Mandhana helped India defeat Hong Kong, China in the Women's Asia Cup match in Dubai with a record-breaking performance. Mandhana hit a glittering ton that helped her go past her former skipper Mithali Raj for most runs in women's international cricket. Mandhana's majestic 124 was the highlight in India's 193/5 - a total their opponents came nowhere closer to chasing down as they fell short comfortably by 137 runs.

When India set them a target of 194, Hong Kong were always up against it, having made only 114/7 in the tournament's opener against Thailand. The procession started as early as in the second over of the chase when Nandani Sharma bowled two outswingers before bringing one back in to breach the defence. Before a couple of boundaries in the final Powerplay over, Hong Kong were struggling at 8/1 after five overs. After Deepti Sharma and Prema Rawat joined the fight, things quickly fell apart.

Before Shree Charani joined the party, both bowlers struck in succession to reduce Hong Kong to 36/4. After that, when Nandani came back into the attack in the 14th over, Hong Kong went into a massive funk. From 52/4, Hong Kong were bundled out for just 56 as they lost their final six wickets in the space of 18 deliveries. While Shree Charani only hit once in the 15th and 17th overs, Deepti hit three times and only gave up one run in a stunning over that came in between.

Earlier in the evening, the Indian innings was all about Mandhana. She got off to a sluggish start, batting on 11 off 14 at one point, before breaking free with a sweep that went for a boundary. This helped her shift gears easily, and the 30-year-old followed it up with three boundaries in the over that followed. That also influenced Shafali Verma, who hit two fours and two sixes in the final Powerplay over to give India early control.

Even though Verma fell for 28 after the Powerplay, Mandhana continued to bat like a dream and brought up her half-century with a six. That kickstarted an onslaught from the opener as she kept dealing in sixes and struck fours off successive deliveries to move into the nineties. She eventually became the first Indian woman to record two centuries in the format, beating Mithali in style with a hat trick of sixes. Later, she became the first Indian woman to do so. She also passed her skipper Harmanpreet Kaur for the most sixes by an Indian woman in the format by clearing the ropes seven times on the night.