Bahrain cricketer Deepika Rasangika was still in shock, a day after creating history by smashing a breathtaking 161 not out against Saudi Arabia and setting a world record for the highest individual score in women’s T20 internationals.
“I had no clue about the record,” the 38-year-old Sri Lankan expatriate told GDN in an exclusive telephone interview from Oman where the Bahrain women’s cricket team is participating in the six-nation GCC Women’s T20I Championship Cup.
“I only found out once I returned to the pavilion and the coach and all the other girls started congratulating me,” she added.
Rasangika’s life-altering innings easily overtook the previous highest score by a batter in women’s cricket: 148 not out by Australia’s Alyssa Healy, ironically against Sri Lanka in 2019.
“Everything’s changed for me,” Rasangika said. “I have no words to express how I feel at the moment. It just happened in an hour and a half (a T20I innings typically takes about 90 minutes to complete the 20 overs) and now, from a team of amateur cricketers, my name is listed for a world record! I’m still in shock that I managed to break a world record, but I also feel as if I’m on cloud nine!”
Rasangika, a former Sri Lanka international who played 31 ODIs and 35 T20Is between 2008 and 2014, said it would take some time for her to fully grasp the enormity of what she had accomplished.
“It is still hard to believe,” she explained. “I couldn’t even have begun to imagine that I could create this kind of record. I only realised what an amazing achievement this is when I started getting calls and messages from across the globe.”
Rasangika’s was not the only world record the Bahrain team had reason to celebrate. Partnered by captain Tharanga Gajanayake, who, herself, finished with an unbeaten 94, Rasangika powered her team to a record-setting 318 for one after 20 overs – the highest team total in T20I history, eclipsing the previous highest score of 314 for 2 set by Uganda against Mali in 2019.
And the duo’s 255-run stand became the highest ever partnership for the second wicket in T20Is, beating the previous mark of 227 between Uganda’s Prosscovia Alaco and Rita Musamali.
The Saudi team, comprised of weekend cricketers with South Asian roots just like their Bahraini counterparts, who only managed to stutter to a total of 49 for 8 off their 20 overs in reply to the gargantuan target they faced, received a heart-warming gesture from the Bahrain team at the end of the match.
“We understood that they had no experience of top-flight cricket, like most of our girls,” Bahrain team manager Shaila Khan said. “So we made it a point to go up to them after the match and console them and we had a group photograph taken with them.”
Later, when the team arrived at their hotel, there was a big surprise waiting for Rasangika.
“The Bahrain Cricket Federation (BCF), who are responsible for our cricketing journey and have been so supportive throughout, had arranged for a cake to celebrate Rasangika’s achievement,” Khan explained. “So she cut the cake and we continued our celebration, which had started on the field once we became aware of all the records that had tumbled during the day.”
Rasangika, who moved to Bahrain in 2017 after being offered a job as a women’s coach at a local cricket academy, said her family in Sri Lanka were ecstatic and her phone hadn’t stopped ringing and beeping since Tuesday.
“I’m still getting goose-bumps when I see my name at the top of the list for highest individual scores in women’s T20Is,” she laughed. “It seems like a dream.”
This has been a momentous week overall for Bahrain’s women cricketers, with the team becoming the first Bahraini women’s side to ever play a T20I when they took on hosts Oman in the tournament’s opening match. The week-long competition also features teams from Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The 17-member Bahrain squad had been selected based on players’ performances in the newly-constituted Women’s Cricket League, an initiative to drive women’s empowerment through cricket by building a robust community of women cricketers, according to BCF president Hatim Dadabai.
With a couple of days off until their next match on Friday against Kuwait, the team went on a sight-seeing tour arranged by the BCF, team manager Khan said.
“The BCF, Mr Dadabai, special advisor to the BCF Mohammed Mansoor, our coach and other BCF officials have all been very supportive and we are very grateful to them,” she added.
None of the team’s achievements would have been possible, Khan said, without the support of Supreme Council for Youth and Sport first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Rasangika agreed.
“He’s been wonderful,” she said. “And, as for my innings, I hope it will inspire more and more women to come and play for the lovely country of Bahrain.”
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