MANCHESTER: India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Sunday became the first player acros both women's and men's international cricket to play 200 T20 Internationals during her team's World Cup clash against South Africa.
Harmanpreet, who made her international debut in March 2009 against Pakistan in the ODI format, played her first T20I in June that year against England at Taunton.
Harmanpreet was given a special jersey and a cap with '200' written on them by India head coach Amol Muzumdar and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana during a team huddle before the start of the game.
"I think, honestly, it's been an amazing journey. I never thought I'll come that far, but I think God has been kind and I'm really thankful to him and to my family, friends, BCCI, all my teammates. They've been really supportive," Harmanpreet said at the toss.
"I think I'm more nervous playing 200th game and she is someone who looks very calm and hopefully she'll enjoy the game," she added, having awarded the debut cap to Prema Rawat.
Harmanpreet leads an illustrious list of women cricketers in the list of most T20Is, which incudes New Zealand's Suzie Bates (184 matches), Danni Wyatt-Hodge (183), Australia's Ellyse Perry (177) and Mandhana (169).
Among men's players, Ireland's Paul Stirling leads the list with 163 matches followed by former India captain Rohit Sharma (159), George Dockrell from Ireland (157), England's Jos Buttler (155), and Afghanistan's Mohammad Nabi (152).