Shania-Lee Swart 160*, others 0, team 169: Go figure

Cricket is a team game, goes the cliché. Not if you’re the Mpumalanga Under-19 women’s team, though.

In one of the most astonishing scorecards in the history of the sport, Shania-Lee Swart slammed 160* in her team’s total of 169/8 during a T20 match of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Under-19 Girls National Cricket Week in Pretoria against Easterns Under-19s.

But it’s not just the contribution from one girl that’s the shocking aspect. All other players that came out to bat got out for ducks including three golden ones. The No. 9 batswoman was also not out on 0, while Swart carried the bat to help her team notch up 169/8 in their 20 overs. The only scorer besides Swart in Mpumalanga’s innings was Extras: 9 of them.

Swart’s blazing innings comprised 18 fours and 12 maximums and it came off just 86 balls at a strike rate of 186. After losing three quick wickets, she shared a 50-run partnership with Yonella Vellelo, who faced nine balls without scoring a run.

The eighth wicket fell at 108, after which Swart decided to take a majority of the strike, leaving the unbeaten No. 10 Nicholate Phiri to face just three deliveries in their unbroken stand of 61.        

Swart would’ve been forgiven to think her job for the day was done. But she opened the bowling and picked up two wickets to set the tone for her team’s 42-run victory. The Easterns Under-19s could only manage to notch up 127/6.

Poor Easterns, if only a certain Swart wasn’t playing.