New Delhi, Oct 29 (IANS) When Tanisha Singh walked out to open the batting for Delhi against Hyderabad in their Senior Women’s T20 Trophy clash at the MCA Ground 2 in Pune, she had a feeling that didn’t have an immediate explanation. Something inside the right-handed batter told her Thursday was going to be her day.
That feeling turned out to be correct when Tanisha smashed 119 off 47 balls, including reaching her hundred in 38 deliveries, and powered Delhi to 262/6, the highest total ever recorded by a women’s team in domestic T20 cricket.
Tanisha’s 38-ball century is now the joint third-fastest in women’s T20 cricket. Only Kiran Navgire, who reached three figures in 34 balls for Maharashtra against Punjab, and Sophie Devine, with a 36-ball hundred for Wellington against Otago, have been quicker.
Tanisha now shares the mark with West Indies batter Deandra Dottin, who hit a 38-ball hundred against South Africa in 2010. “Today I just thought that I have to bat with good intent, play aggressively and dominate. I will score well as I could feel that intuition. I was just looking at the ball and hitting it everywhere,” Tanisha told IANS in an exclusive conversation from Pune after the game ended.
The intent was clear from the first two balls of the innings, both of which she hit for four off S. Yashasri, and it never wavered. Delhi lost Vanshika Lila in the second over, but that did little to slow Tanisha down. With India batter Priya Punia at the other end, she added 160 runs for the second wicket off just 66 balls.
“I honestly didn’t think that I would hit so many runs. I was trying to attack the ball as much as I could, trying to be one step ahead of the bowler, and was trying to play wherever the ball came. My aim was to try and play with the field so that the bowler gets under pressure,” she added.
Strikingly, the two barely exchanged a word during the stand. “With Priya di, the thing is that we don’t talk much. She was playing silently in her zone. I was also in such a zone that I wasn’t talking much, keeping my head down and quietly playing my shots. “She was also thinking where the bowler would put the ball and where she could hit it for a boundary. We didn’t talk at all in the partnership. She was also playing attacking cricket, and I was also attacking from the other end,” she added.
Words were not needed. Fist bumps and bat touches did the talking, and Priya, she said, had to remind her to acknowledge the dugout when she reached fifty. “I just wanted to take a strike and keep playing,” said Tanisha.
Though Priya fell for 59 off 28 balls, Shweta Sehrawat then smashed 26 off eight deliveries, including three sixes, to take Delhi past 200. But Tanisha was bowled by G Trisha in the 15th over with the score reading 230/4. By then, she had hit 25 fours and a six in her magnificent knock. In all, 106 of her runs came from boundaries.
Delhi lost their way slightly at the death, but cameos from Nazma Khan and Deeksha Sharma, and 15 from captain Soni Yadav, carried them to the record score. The previous best score was Goa’s 257/2 against Arunachal Pradesh in 2019/20. The aggression, Tanisha said, was all planned.
“It’s because the T20 game is like that now. Even for batting, we had already planned that we need 50 runs in 6 overs, but twice that was happening (Delhi got 93/1 in the powerplay). Whichever batter was coming, we all were talking about just one thing: that we have to attack and play aggressively and dominate.”
Hyderabad never got close. Trisha made 80 off 52 balls, and captain Pranavi Chandra was the only other batter to pass 20, as they finished on 154/8 and lost by 108 runs. It was only after the match was over that Tanisha learnt about the record now in Delhi’s name. “When our match was over, the match referee (Niyati Koustubh Lokur) told us that the record was made. I guess it feels really good when it is unexpected. I felt that this was God’s plan.”
Delhi’s total sits 11th on the all-time list of women’s T20 scores — the ten above it all came in internationals, led by Argentina’s 427/1 and 333/1 against Chile in 2023/24. It was also Tanisha’s first T20 hundred, and came after she bagged a duck. Tanisha insists she has learnt to take both the duck and the hundred in stride.
“This was my first T20 hundred, but even after hitting it, I felt normal. I got out for zero before this game, and even then my reaction was normal. Obviously, there is an expectation from yourself that you have to do it. In the second match also, there was such an expectation that I had to do it, and I just played normally.
“In spite of there being so much excitement that you have to get runs, while playing I have normalised that these scores of zero and hundred, ups and downs will continue. Records are meant to be broken. If someone plays better than me, she will also make a record, and then I will also try to keep making records in future,” she said.
The innings followed a productive year. Tanisha toured England with India A in July, and made a fifty in the third one-dayer. She was the third-highest run-scorer in the 2026 Delhi Premier League with 206 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 117.05 for finalists South Delhi Superstars. Against Australia A in September, she scored 120 runs in three one-dayers, including a fifty in the chase of 363, and 92 in the only unofficial Test.
“I would like to give credit to my coach, Dishant Yagnik (the current fielding coach at the BCCI CoE in Bengaluru). He has given a lot of attention to my skills and helped me a lot. I practice in Delhi at RPCA with Surjeet Sir and Ajay Verma Sir. They help me with my skills and make me practice a lot. So credit goes to them,” she said.
She also pointed to her time with India A, which gave her a big learning curve. “In India A, the environment around us is such that I got to learn a lot from the seniors – they live in discipline and routine. Because of my India A stint, I am able to see improvements in myself.
“I am able to walk into my routine; my body is active, and I am energetic. It’s because I have seen that in India A, when we step up, you see the seniors who are already playing. Watching and observing them carefully, how they are doing so that they are able to sustain and play. I have also seen that they are disciplined. So, I would like to see that – the role of discipline is exactly what is giving me results.”
The record day came less than 24 hours after the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2027 auction in Kochi, where Tanisha found no takers. “I guess it’s been 3-4 years – I am trying via WPL trials, and when it doesn’t happen, obviously, it feels bad. But the atmosphere around you and the positive people you have, because of them, it feels like your mind changes. I would really give the credit to my close friends, our physios, my coaches, and my parents.
“When the WPL auction happened, I wasn’t answering my parents or close friends calls. But then I talked to my physio, Surya ma’am. She was understanding and said that everything will be fine. Even if I talk to someone, if they are low, then I tell them myself that everything will be fine.
“When I get the reply that everything will be fine, then I also say that yes, everything will be fine. ‘Bhagwan ji dekh rahe hai. Unhone India A di aur wahi main India denge (God is watching. He has given India A, and he will give India main).’
“My main aim is not WPL; it is to play for India. All of this uplifted my mood, and I stayed normal. Then the next day, it was magic – I didn’t know how that happened. As in, I still feel that I don’t know how that day passed,” she said.
For now, on Tanisha’s list is a domestic title to chase. Delhi won the senior women’s one-day trophy last year but have not won the T20 equivalent of it. “I guess our Delhi players are very skilful. We are very good in bowling, batting, and fielding. We play together, and with unity.
“Our next target, before T20 trophy games began, was set a month ago, when we were thinking that we have not won the T20 trophy in seniors. We won the seniors 50-over trophy last year. So our focus has always been to win the T20 trophy. In the next match, we will play aggressively and dominate,” signed off Tanisha.
–IANS
nr/bsk/
