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Brazil all-rounder Laura Cardoso has become the first cricketer – woman or man – to claim nine wickets in a single T20 international, her 3–2–4–9 dismantling Lesotho at the Kalahari Women’s T20I Tournament in Gaborone on Tuesday.
The bare numbers tell the opening story. Lesotho, chasing 203, were hustled out for 13 – the joint-seventh lowest total in women’s T20Is – beaten by 189 runs. Cardoso’s analysis improves on the previous best of 8 for 7, taken by Bhutan left-arm spinner Sonam Yeshey against Myanmar last year. Rohmalia Rohmalia’s 7 for 0 for Indonesia had been the women’s benchmark since 2024.
Yet it all began quietly enough. Cardoso, 21, lasted two balls with the bat before edging to slip for four. “I was annoyed with myself walking off,” she admitted on local radio afterwards, “but you don’t have time to sulk in T20s.”
Brazil’s 202 for 8 owed more to Roberta Moretti Avery’s 56 and some late-order improvisation than to their young all-rounder. Her real impact arrived with ball in hand.
Second over: a single, a dot, then three wickets in three balls – the classic hat-trick. Fourth over: four wickets in five deliveries, a blur of skidding off-breaks and one that gripped. Sixth over: two more, both bowled. With Lesotho 13 for 9, observers wondered if T20I cricket might at last witness all ten wickets falling to a single bowler.
Marianne Artur ended that speculation by luring the No.11 out of her crease next over; wicketkeeper Renata Diniz whipped off the bails. “I probably owe Marianne a coffee,” Cardoso quipped, “though maybe she owes me for the nine at the other end.”
Context matters. The opposition are newcomers, learning on the job, while Brazil – five wins from five – have invested heavily in a central-contract system. Even so, a nine-for in a format built for hitters is startling. Former England spinner Alex Hartley put it plainly on social media: “Nine in four overs is ridiculous, whatever the level.”
Technically, Cardoso bowls off-spin but her pace hovers in that indeterminate space between spinner and seamer. She uses the crease smartly and attacks the stumps, so every miss can be a dismissal – LBW or bowled – on pitches that offer variable bounce.
Brazil top the group going into the final round. Cardoso, level-headed as ever, prefers small steps: “Records are nice but trophies matter more. We’ve not won anything yet.”
Plenty of cricket still to be played, but her nine-for is locked into the record books – and, for the moment at least, into the imagination of the wider game.
