Who is Kiran Navgire? The MS Dhoni admirer who smashed fastest 50 in Women's T20 Challenge

As the league games of the ongoing Women's T20 Challenge, 2022 came to an end, one player who made a mark, especially on her debut was Kiran Navgire. In the third game against the defending champions Trailblazers, the Velocity player helped her side chase a humongous target of 191 runs.

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Navgire in fact went on to notch up the fastest half-century in the history of the tournament on her debut.

Navgire achieved the half-century mark with a six in just 25 balls. She went on to break Shafali Verma's previous record of 30 balls 50 making Navgire's half-century the fastest in the tournament's history. 

So who is Kiran Navgire?

The Indian batter from Solapur, a small city in the state of Maharashtra, began her cricketing journey in 2016. She switched to cricket leaving athletics behind. Before joining the game, Navgire used to play javelin throw, shot put, and relay, winning multiple medals and trophies in athletics.

The Women's T20 Challenge even on occasions said that she idolized Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper MS Dhoni. 

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In the domestic setup, she recently concluded the Senior Women's T20 trophy playing for Nagaland. The 26-year-old went on to hammer 525 runs and led the leaderboard for scoring the most runs in the tournament.

She smacked a 76-ball 162 as well against Arunachal Pradesh in her debut game. This made her the first Indian, male or female, to cross the 150-run mark in an individual innings in T20 cricket.