ICC Women’s World T20 witnesses an entry into the million club – This is how

The ICC Women’s World T20 encounter between West Indies and Sri Lanka saw the hosts thrash the Lankans by 83 runs to enter the semi-final of the tournament. An aggressive 62 from Hayley Matthews, followed by aggressive knocks of 49 and 41 from Deandra Dottin and Stefanie Taylor helped the Windies reach 187/5 and Sri Lanka proved to be no match, losing the match by a heavy margin with Matthews taking three wickets. The result also helped England enter the last four, having earlier defeated South Africa with Anya Shrubsole taking a hat-trick. However, during the Sri Lanka innings, an instance occurred which propelled women’s cricket into the elite league in the sport.

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On the fifth ball of the fourth innings of the Sri Lankan chase, medium pacer Shakera Selman bowled the one millionth recorded delivery in women’s cricket. The action was equally eventful, with the batter Kavisha Dilhari getting a leading edge back to the bowler. Selman tried to collect it, but she could not hold on to the catch. However, she attempted a run-out at the striker’s end but failed in that as well.

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Thus, Selman etched her name in the history books and she joins a select list of players who have entered the million club either with the bat or with the ball in men’s cricket.

Millionth ball and run in men’s cricket

Test cricket originated in 1877 and the first match was between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. About 109 years later, in the Wankhede Test between India and Australia in 1986, Allan Border, who captained the Aussies, hammered pace bowler Raju Kulkarni to the boundary to bring up one million runs in Test cricket.

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ODIs were also not left behind. In 2006, during the DLF Cup match encounter between Australia and India at Kuala Lumpur on September 22, left-hander Dinesh Mongia scored a streaky boundary off pacer Stuart Clark as he became the batsman to hit the millionth run in ODIs.

When it comes to bowlers in Test cricket, they have also entered the million club. During the Test match in Trent Bridge between Australia and England in 2015, Ben Stokes was bowling the 16^th over to David Warner. Warner punched the second ball to the long on fence but Stokes had his moment in history, becoming the bowler who bowled the one millionth legal delivery in Tests.

It was a match to forget for Australia as they were bowled out for 60 thanks to a spell of 8/15 by Stuart Broad. Australia lost the match by an innings and 78 runs as they lost the Ashes series 2-3.