Brazilian seamer Laura Cardoso scripts world record, first to take 9 wickets in a T20I match

Laura Cardoso of Brazil demolished Lesotho in a tournament in Botswana, finishing with 9/4 as she created history – including 5 wickets in five balls.

Brazilian bowler Laura Cardoso created history during Brazil’s match against Lesotho in the Kalahari Women’s T20I tournament, as she became the first player in either men’s or women’s senior T20I matches to take nine wickets in a single innings.

Laura Cardoso became the first player in any T20I match to take nine wickets in a single innings. (Instagram)

The fast bowler took each of her team’s first nine wickets enroute to a monstrous 189-run victory for the Brazilian team, ultimately finishing with figures of 9/4 as Lesotho were bowled out for just 13 in this match in Botswana.

Cardoso outdoes the previous record in T20Is, held by Sonam Yeshey of Bhutan, who took 8/7 in a men’s T20I against Myanmar. She also breaks the women’s T20I record, a scarcely believable spell of 7/0, taken by Indonesian bowler Rohmalia against Mongolia.

Cardoso only bowled three overs of her spell, taking a wicket one nine of her eighteen deliveries. However, with one wicket to spare, Brazil weren’t able to give their bowler a chance to create history by joining the ranks of Jim Laker, Anil Kumble and Ajaz Patel. Marianne Artur would take the 10th and final wicket of the innings.

Of her nine wickets, four were bowled, four came via leg before wicket, and only one was a catch. Her spell also included two maidens.

Cardoso also first to take five in five balls

In her first over, she took a hat-trick, with wickets on each of the last three balls of the second over in Lesotho’s chase. She followed this up with a second over in which she took four wickets – this meant she also took five wickets off five balls in succession across two overs, also becoming the first player to achieve that feat in T20 internationals.

A sixth wicket would follow in the space of seven balls, and then a seventh in the space of nine, as Cardoso managed to snap through the entirety of the batting in a one-sided contest. Cardoso affected seven ducks in the Lesotho batting order, with four of these being golden ducks – only three Lesotho batters were able to score a run, and the entire innings only saw one boundary, by opener Boitumelo Tlali before she was out LBW.

Brazil had earlier put up a score of 202 in their own batting innings, Cardoso batting at number four and scoring 4 runs. This was Brazil’s fifth match in five matches in the tournament, and pushes them to the top of the six-member group stage.