One of the most admired, successful and celebrated athletes in Pakistan, Sana Mir gave up engineering for cricket. From making field setting on her chemistry notes with the electrons and neutrons to become the no. 1 bowler in the ICC ODI Bowling ranking, her journey was not at all easy. Recently, she became the first Asian woman cricketer to feature in hundred T20 International matches.
She achieved the feat during Pakistan's third and final T20I match against West Indies in Karachi. With this feat, she surpassed former India captain MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Shahid Afridi and joined Shoaib Malik in the list.
When she started playing, she used to follow Waqar Younis as she had a particular liking for long run-up but due to some injury, she had to remodel her action which turned her into an off-spinner. Though her college didn’t have a cricket team, she was the captain of the basketball team, swimming team etc. which gave her the confidence of being a leader.
She made her ODI debut against Sri Lanka at Karachi on 28th December 2005 and made her T20I debut against Ireland at Dublin on May 25, 2009. On 4th May 2009, prior to the World T20, she was handed over the captaincy of the team. At the 2010 Asian Games, Mir led from the front and the team won the gold medal.
She also led the team to their first ever tournament wins in both the T20I and ODI when they played in Sri Lanka in 2011. The team had qualified for the 2012 World T20 and 2013 Women's World Cup under her captaincy. For the first time ever, the team also beat South Africa.
Sana has missed only two matches in the format due to injury since her debut. She became the sixth cricketer to play 100 T20I matches. Deandra Dottin of West Indies, who has played 109 T20I matches, topped the list. From Pakistan, only Shoaib Malik has reached the feat while Afridi has played 99 matches. Next on the list are MS Dhoni and Harmanpreet Kaur, both have played 93 matches and Rohit Sharma appeared with 89 appearances.
Sana Mir became the first woman cricketer to win the ‘PCB Woman cricketer of the Year Award’ in 2013. In the same year, Pakistan beat England for the first time in any format and continued their winning streak for the 11 matches in a row. After the completion of the tour, 6 players have found their places in the ICC top 20 players ranking for their wonderful performances.
However, Pakistan lost all the matches of the WWC 2017 but did a good fight back against New Zealand in the ICC Championship series in November 2017. Her four-wicket haul helped them to secure their maiden ODI win against the White Ferns. Not only this, she took another two 4-wicket haul against Sri Lanka in March 2018 which helped Pakistan in their clean sweep of the ODI series.
Her 5/32 in ODI against the Netherlands in 2010 is the best figure so far whereas she has two 4-wicket hauls in T20Is too, the 4/13 against Ireland in 2009 and 4/13 against India in 2012. However, her spell against Ireland was for winning cause but Pakistan was unable to win the match against India which was the final of Asia Cup 2012.
Not only as a bowler but her contribution as a batter also unquestionable. During the ICC Women's World Cup on Jul 8, 2017, at Taunton, she came into bat against White Ferns when they were three down. Having led from the front, she played a captain’s knock of 50 off 86.
Along with these, she has an amazing fielding skill. Her stunning mid-wicket catch sent India T20 captain Harmanpreet Kaur in the dug-out during their match against India in the ICC Women's World Cup, 2017.
On March 23, 2012, Mir has become the first ever female cricketer from Pakistan to be awarded the 'Tamgha-e-Imtiaz' for her services in cricket. In October 2018, she became the no. 1 ODI bowler in the ICC ODI Bowling Rankings.
In her 100th appearance, she took 2 scalps for 21 where Pakistan won by 12 runs. The three-match series ended 2-1 in favour of West Indies.
Video: Exclusive Interview with Sana Mir, currently number 1 ODI bowler
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