Against Lesotho at the BCA Kalahari Women’s T20 Invitational Tournament, Laura Cardoso of Brazil registered the best-ever figures in recorded limited-overs cricket.
Three overs, four runs, nine wickets: Laura Cardoso creates history
At Gaborone, Cardoso single-handedly helped Brazil thrash Lesotho by 189 runs. Brazil were 69-4 after Carolina Nascimento won the toss and opted to bat, but former captain Roberta Moretti Avery (48 in 35 balls) and wicketkeeper Monnike Machado (69 not out in 41) took them to 202-8.
Cardoso came to bowl after Maria Ribeiro bowled the first over. She struck with her fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth balls to become the first to take five wickets in five balls in international cricket.
It is worth a mention that until a year ago, no one had five wickets in five balls in more than 250 years of professional cricket. In July 2025, Curtis Campher became the first to do this, in a men’s T20 match for the Munster Reds. In March 2026, Brett Randell of Central Districts did the same in first-class cricket.
Coming back to Cardoso, she was not quite content with five in five. She made it six in seven, seven in nine, eight in thirteen, and nine in fifteen balls. The ninth wicket, a caught-behind dismissal, was also the first where she needed a teammate’s assistance: until that point she had bowled four batters and trapped four leg-before.
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After the sixth over, she had figures of 3-2-4-9 – and that included three wides. She had a chance of taking all ten, but Marianne Artur had No.10 batter Lindiwe Polaki (the only non-opener to score a run off the bat) stumped off her second ball, and Lesotho were bowled out for 13 in 6.2 overs.
Cardoso’s figures are now the best in professional limited-overs cricket: she went past Vidarbha’s Komal Zanzad’s 9-8 in 2017 in a List A game. The previous best figuress in limited-overs internationals used to be Bhutan mens' Sonam Yeshey’s 8-7.
Match 14, Brazil Women vs Lesotho Women
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- Ball by ball Over
Best figures in each format in limited-overs cricket
| Format | Intl? | Figures | Bowler | Team | Opposition | Venue | Year |
| Men’s List A | No | 10-4-10-8 | Shahbaz Nadeem | Jharkhand | Rajasthan | Chennai | 2018 |
| Women’s List A | No | 9.4-5-8-9 | Komal Zanzad | Vidarbha | Haryana | Kolkata | 2017 |
| Men’s T20 | Yes | 4-1-7-8 | Sonam Yeshey | Bhutan | Myanmar | Gelephu | 2025 |
| Women’s T20 | Yes | 3-0-4-9 | Laura Cardoso | Brazil | Lesotho | Gaborone | 2026 |
Not a first for Cardoso
Cardoso has a reputation for freakish bowling figures. Even in her previous game, she hit a 34-ball 52 before routing Zambia with figures of 2.1-2-0-3.
A memorable performance came against Canada in 2021: coming to defend three off the last over, Cardoso conceded a solitary run and picked up three wickets (there were two run outs as well).
At the Fairbreak Invitational Tournament of 2023, an 18-year-old Cardoso dismissed Danni Wyatt and Chamari Athapaththu with consecutive deliveries. And so on.
When Cricket Brasil had handed professional contracts to 14 women (before their male counterparts), a 14-year-old Cardoso had been among them.
