Caroline de Lange reached a landmark moment in her career on 27 June 2026, claiming her 100th international wicket as the Netherlands concluded their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup campaign with a loss to Pakistan at the County Ground, Bristol.
The 27-year-old leg-spinner, already the Netherlands’ second-highest wicket-taker in T20Is behind Iris Zwilling, marked the milestone in the Netherlands’ fifth and final match of the tournament, finishing as her side’s leading bowler in the competition and furthering an international record built steadily since her debut in 2019.
Pakistan, electing to bat under skipper Fatima Sana, were held to a competitive 126 for 6 in their 20 overs, with de Lange producing tidy figures of 4-0-24-1. She accounted for the early scalp of Eyman Fatima, trapped for a six-ball duck, and in doing so moved past the 100-wicket threshold across international formats.
De Lange’s performance in Bristol was emblematic of her value: controlling the middle overs, varying pace and flight, and consistently stifling scoring opportunities, traits that have defined her evolution from a promising debutant to a premier Dutch spinner.
Since her T20I debut against Scotland at Cartagena on 26 June 2019, de Lange has been a mainstay of the Netherlands’ bowling attack. In 92 T20I matches and 90 bowling innings, she has 89 T20I wickets at an average of 18.91 and an economy of 5.37; she finishes the World Cup as the Netherlands’ top wicket-taker in the tournament with seven scalps at an average of 20.57 and an economy of 7.20.
Her best T20I performance to date remains the eye-catching 4-for against Namibia in Schiedam on 28 June 2022, when she returned match figures of 3-1-6-4 in a dominant 70-run victory.
Caroline De Lange’s contributions in the 50-over game are more recent but valuable: since making her ODI debut on 24 August 2022 versus Ireland at Amstelveen, she has collected 11 wickets in 12 matches and 12 innings at an average of 37.36 and an economy of 4.11. Those figures underline her adaptability across formats, a leg-spinner who can read the game in the shorter T20 context while also maintaining control in the longer white-ball format.
Batting proved a persistent challenge for the Netherlands in Bristol. Heather Siegers gave the chase a brisk start with 24 off 16 and a 31-run opening stand alongside Phebe Molkenboer, but after Siegers’ early departure, the innings faltered. Only Sterre Kalis (12) and captain Babette de Leede (30) reached double figures as the Dutch were bowled out for 89 in 18 overs, falling 37 runs short.
The defeat left the Netherlands bottom of their group, finishing their campaign with zero points from five matches, yet the team showed patches of promise and individual performances that argue for growth ahead of future tournaments.
For de Lange, the 100-wicket landmark is a career-defining moment amid a testing tournament for her team. It is the product of seven years of international development: craft honed through variations, intelligent use of angles and a temperament that has allowed her to be both a wicket-taker and an economical operator.
As the Netherlands regroup, Caroline de Lange’s century of wickets offers a clear focal point, a seasoned match-winner around whom the Dutch bowling unit can continue to build.
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