Last year was a huge one for women's international cricket, with a 50-over World Cup and an Ashes series as well as an India v Australia bilateral series. Wisden.com's editorial team have selected their 10 best innings across all three international formats.
10. Beth Mooney 138 vs India, Delhi
A double entrant on this list is the third ODI between Australia in their World Cup warm-up series. Australia's 412 was their joint-highest score in a women's ODI, and was driven by Beth Mooney's rapid hundred. The innings loses some points because of the number of misfields which fed its speed, but Mooney's 57-ball century meant Australia at one point could have exceeded even the total they ended up on. Mooney had a stellar 2025 in all formats, with two ODI hundreds, an average of 94.75 in T20Is and an Ashes Test century to kick it all off.
9. Ash Gardner 104 vs England, Indore
Despite being restricted to 244-9 in their innings, it looked like England were in the game in their match against Australia in the World Cup group stage. Australia's first four wickets fell within the first 16 overs of their response, leaving Ash Gardner and Annabel Sutherland to piece the chase back together. Proving that you can never relax against Australia until they're all back in the dugout, Gardner hit a 69-ball hundred, the second 50 of which took just 22 balls, to see Australia home with just under 10 overs to spare.
8. Hayley Matthews 114* vs Scotland, Lahore
Matthews is one of two players who has two innings on this list, with both knocks that make the top 10 having similar characteristics. At the World Cup qualifier in April, as she desperately tried to haul her team to qualification against Scotland, Matthews batted through debilitating cramp to score an unbeaten century. She had to leave the field during her innings twice, once on a stretcher, before returning to bat as the wickets tumbled. Her efforts were in vain, however, as she was left stranded at one end when the final wicket fell with West Indies still 11 runs short of parity. Matthews had also taken four wickets in Scotland's innings, making her only the fourth player to take four wickets and score a century in a women's ODI. A special mention should be given to her 70 off 29 balls later in the tournament against Thailand, as she attempted to keep pace with a near-impossible required run rate, with West Indies once again falling agonizingly short.
7. Smriti Mandhana 125 vs Australia, Delhi
Mandhana had a record-breaking year in ODIs, becoming the first woman to score five centuries in a calendar year in the format, as well as the first to score 1,000 runs. The best of the lot came against Australia in the same match Mooney's entrant was made. Mandhana bettered Mooney's strike-rate to score a century off just 50 balls – the second fastest-ever hundred in a women's ODI. It wasn't quite enough to get India over the line, but was the most extraordinary innings of the day.
6. Laura Wolvaardt 169 vs England, Guwahati
Wolvaardt's own extraordinary year in ODIs perhaps didn't get quite as much attention as it deserved given Mandhana's simultaneous run-scoring spree. The best of Wolvaardt's own five ODI hundreds came against England in the World Cup semi-final. True to character, Wolvaardt led from the front, calmly reeling off the highest score of the tournament to put South Africa well ahead of the benchmark. Her score was more than double that of anyone else in the match, and England collectively only outscored her by 25 runs before being bowled out.
5. Hayley Matthews 100 vs England, Canterbury
Matthews' second entrant on this list was another lone effort, although this time in even more isolation. The first T20I of the English summer at Canterbury marked a new era for the hosts, but more of the same for West Indies. Matthews' was in charge of a young side without many of its senior players, and grew increasingly frustrated as the innings wore on. She struck her third T20I hundred, while no one else in the innings managed more than 17. She reached her century off the final ball of the innings, scuffing a single off Lauren Bell.
4. Nadine de Klerk 84* vs India, Visakhapatnam
South Africa were staring down the barrel in their chase against India in the World Cup group stages. Chasing 252, they were six wickets down with still more than 100 to get when De Klerk came to the crease. She and Chloe Tryon put on a partnership which kept South Africa in the game, but, when Tryon was out with 41 still needed off 25 balls, De Klerk showed how she became one of the ultimate clutch players in the game. She went 6, 6, 4 off the first three legal deliveries of Kranti Gaud's next over, and finished the game with two sixes in three balls off Amanjot Kaur. De Klerk's innings completely turned the chase on its head, and put South Africa well on track to the knockouts.
3. Smriti Mandhana 112 vs England, Nottingham
The second of Mandhana's knocks on this list, and the one that breaks her into the top three, was her first T20I century. Standing in as captain for Harmanpreet Kaur, Mandhana's knock consigned England to their heaviest T20I defeat, containing three sixes and 16 fours. She reached her hundred in 51 deliveries, and became the fifth player in history with centuries in all three international formats.
2. Annabel Sutherland 163 vs England, Melbourne
In a landmark Test at the MCG, her home ground, Annabel Sutherland scored her third Test century in four matches played across two-and-a-half years. It came at the end of a tour where Australia had completely dominated England, but Sutherland's knock ground them further into the dirt. The first woman to score a Test century at the MCG, Sutherland's knock put her equal with Betty Wilson and Jill Kennare for the most Test hundreds scored for Australia women. At the time of the innings, Sutherland was 23 years old.
1. Jemimah Rodrigues 127* vs Australia, Navi Mumbai
There was little competition for the top spot on this list to Jemimah Rodrigues in the World Cup semi-final. Regardless of all of the other entrants, Rodrigues was the knock which will go down in history as an iconic moment for the game. Not only was it a match-winning hundred in a World Cup semi-final chase of more than 330, but it was against reigning Champions Australia, on home turf in front of thousands of fans in Navi Mumbai, the home of women's cricket in India. Rodrigues finished the match off, streaked with dirt and overcome by the emotion, mobbed by her teammates with the crowd in the palm of her hand. If anything, she upstaged the main event when India lifted the trophy three days later.
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