Brazil’s Laura Cardoso claimed the best bowling performance in T20 by taking a record nine wickets in her 189th win against Lesotho.
Published on 9 April 2026
Brazil are unlikely to hold on to two cricket records as one of their bowlers took a record nine wickets – including consecutive five-wicket hauls – in their 189-run T20 Women’s International win against Lesotho in Botswana.
After winning the toss in the BCA Kalahari Women’s T20 International tournament on Thursday, Brazil scored a challenging score of 202-8 with the help of wicketkeeper Monique Machado’s 69 runs in 41 balls.
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However, the fun had just begun for the Brazilians, when Laura Cardoso claimed a hat-trick off the last three balls of her first over – Lesotho’s second of the innings – to set in motion an incredible feat that ultimately bowled out the Africans for 13 runs.
After this, the 21-year-old player continued her wicket-taking feat by dismissing five consecutive players on the first two balls of her second over in the Women’s T20 International. It was all part of Lesotho claiming the first nine wickets to fall, but were denied the chance to take all 10 wickets after a bowling change after the third over. His final wicket was Ratshepile Limema, who fell on the fifth ball of the fifth over, before being replaced by Cardoso in the next over. Nevertheless, her nine wickets are the best return in either men’s or women’s T20 Internationals.
The right-arm pacer actually came close to another hat-trick when she took wickets on the last two balls of her second over, taking the total to four.
Cardoso dethroned Indonesia’s Rohmalia Rohmalia to top the women’s T20 best bowling rankings as she finished with figures of 3-2-4-9.
Rohmalia took seven wickets in the match against Mongolia in Bali in 2024. Only three other women have claimed seven in T20 Internationals.
The previous record for the number of wickets taken on consecutive balls was four, and was jointly held on the most prominent occasion when Shakera Selman achieved the feat for the West Indies against Pakistan in 2018.
Although the victory margin is huge, Brazil’s overall win cannot be compared to Argentina’s record, as they defeated Chile by 364 runs in 2023. Argentina had scored 427-1 to seal their victory.
Lesotho’s share of the record is no higher than Cardoso’s, with the lowest total recorded by Mali, who were bowled out for 6 by Rwanda in 2019.
Brazil, which is leading the six-team tournament with five consecutive wins, will play Mozambique on Friday.
