Brazil's Laura Cardoso registers T20I world record with nine-wicket haul

GABORONE: Right-arm Brazil pacer Laura Cardoso etched her name into the record books with a nine-wicket haul in the 14th match of the Kalahari Women's T20I against Lesotho here at the Botswana Cricket Association Oval 2 on Thursday.

Cardoso, playing her 48th match in the shortest international format for the South American side, wreaked havoc with the ball as she picked up nine wickets for just four runs in her three overs.

As a result, she became the bowler with the best figures in either men's or women's T20I cricket, surpassing the previous record held by Bhutan's Sonam Yeshey, who had taken eight wickets for just seven runs against Myanmar in a men's T20I in 2025.

In women's T20Is, however, Cardoso pipped Indonesia's Rohmalia Rohmalia's figures of 7/0 against Mongolia in 2024.

Cardoso kicked-started her record-shattering spell in the second over Lesotho's innings and immediately asserted her dominance by registering a hat-trick. She followed it up with four wickets in her second over, which took her match tally to seven.

The right-handed seamer took two more wickets in her third over, which propelled her to an unprecedented nine scalps in an innings.

Her sensational bowling performance helped Brazil outclass Lesotho by 189 runs as the South African side had piled up a mammoth total of 202/8 in their 20 overs, courtesy of an unbeaten half-century by Monnike Machado.

The wicketkeeper top-scored for Brazil with an unbeaten 69 off just 41 deliveries, followed by fellow middle-order batter Roberta Moretti Avery, who made a 35-ball 48 with the help of five fours. The duo also shared a match-defining 97-run partnership for the fifth wicket.