Who is Laura Cardoso? Brazil Star Creates Never-Seen-Before T20I Record

Brazilian cricketer Laura Cardoso has etched her name in the record books after her brilliant performance against Lesotho. The game was played in Gaborone and was part of the BCA Kalahari Women’s T20 International Tournament 2026 on April 9 (Thursday).

Laura Cardoso registered the best-ever bowling figures in a T20I match across both men’s and women’s cricket. She seemed unplayable during the BRA-W vs LES-W T20I as the opposition kept losing wickets regularly.

Who is Laura Cardoso?

Laura Cardoso was born on March 28, 2005 and has been involved in sports. Since her childhood, she aimed to become one of the best women cricketers going around. She started playing volleyball first but at the age of 11, she started playing cricket. As per the reports from local channels, she impressed her coach right from the start.

Her hard work finally paid off in January 2020, when she was among the 14 cricketers to be offered a central contract by the board. She was also interested in academics but ensured to maintain a balance between studies and games.

Laura Cardoso made her debut for Brazil in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier in October 2021 and made her presence felt immediately. In a match against the United States, she picked figures of 2-0-6-1 and then carried that confidence.

Cardoso, in the next match against Canada, came up with an even better performance. When her side was on the brink of losing, she snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Canada needed just three runs, and she picked up a hat-trick to take his team to a magical win.

For her heroics, she won the Player of the Match award. She carried on her confidence and ended up breaking several few records with her brilliant spell of nine wickets in an innings and is expected to hold the record for a long time.

Laura Cardoso Breaks Sonam Yeshey's Record

During this innings, Cardoso broke the record of Bhutan’s Sonam Yeshey, who picked eight wickets for just seven runs against Myanmar in a Men's T20I in 2025. Her heroics came when her team was defending a total of 202 runs and the captain handed her the responsibility to bowl the second over.

Laura Cardoso record spell began with a hat-trick in the second over. If this was not enough, she then took four more wickets in the fourth over to take her tally to seven. Then in the sixth over, she bagged two more wickets to complete 9 wickets and took her team to a massive 189-run victory.

The BRA-W vs LES-W T20I match turned out to be a one-sided affair. Brazil scored 205 while batting first, meanwhile, Lesotho were bowled out for just 13 runs, out of which nine wickets were taken by Laura Cardoso.