Brazilian fast bowler Laura Cardoso scripted a towering World Record as she became the first player ever to claim nine wickets in a T20I match. The 21-year-old right-arm medium pacer achieved this unprecedented feat on April 9, 2026, during a T20I match against Lesotho in Gaborone. Cardoso bowled just three overs and conceded only four runs while dismantling the opposition lineup. Her performance helped Brazil bowl out Lesotho for a mere 13 runs as they chased a target of 203.
Laura Cardoso takes historic nine-fer in a T20I match
According to the ICC, Cardoso’s performance shatters the previous world record for the best bowling figures in any T20I. That record was formerly held by Bhutan’s Sonam Yeshey, who took eight wickets for seven runs against Myanmar in a men's T20I in late 2025. In the women’s category, the previous benchmark belonged to Indonesia’s Rohmalia Rohmalia, who claimed seven wickets without conceding a single run against Mongolia in 2024.
The record books also distinguish between associate matches and those played between full-member, Test-playing nations. Among the top-tier women's nations, New Zealand’s Amy Satterthwaite holds the record with figures of 6 for 17, set against England back in 2007. In the men’s equivalent for full-member nations, India’s Deepak Chahar remains at the top of the list for his remarkable spell of 6 for 7 against Bangladesh in 2019.
Cardoso's nine-wicket haul bundles out Lesotho for 13
Talking about the match, Cardoso's bowling wizardry propelled Brazil to a resounding 189-run win over Lesotho, marking the team’s third-largest win in T20I history. Interestingly, Cardoso’s day didn't start on a high note; during Brazil’s innings of 202/8, she was dismissed for just four runs off her second ball. Few could have predicted that the young pacer, after a quiet stint with the bat, would go on to produce the most dominant bowling spell the format has ever seen.
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The Lesotho chase collapsed almost immediately under Cardoso's onslaught. Entering the attack in the second over, she claimed a spectacular hat-trick with the final three balls of the over. The destruction continued in the fourth over, where she snared four wickets in just five deliveries, followed by two more in the sixth over. Finishing with superhuman figures of 9 wickets for 4 runs in just three overs, she nearly became the first player in T20I history to take all ten wickets in an innings.
With Lesotho reeling at 13/9, Cardoso was on the verge of the perfect ten, but Marianne Artur claimed the final wicket via a stumping in the very next over. Lesotho’s total of 13 stands as the seventh-lowest in women's T20I history, further highlighting the sheer disparity between the two sides. Following this clinical performance, Brazil remains the only unbeaten team in the tournament, comfortably sitting at the top of the points table with five consecutive group-stage wins.