2021 was for women¡¯s cricket what a victory in the final lap of a Formula 1 Grand Prix means for a racer. More than thrilling. A spectacle. Call it a talk of the town performance, something to enter in the record books.
An effort worth savouring! Interest in the women¡¯s sport has been one the rise particularly since the successful conclusion of the 2017 ODI world cup in England.
And much thanks to the ICC encouraging greater participation in the women¡¯s sport in regions where one may never have thought cricket would reach, there currently exists undiminishing excitement in the game.
That¡¯s also largely coupled with greater opportunities from which to make oneself counted.
While on the one hand, the sport¡¯s premier stables- England, Australia and India continue to take their brand of cricket to a greater pedestal, rising names such as Ireland and Thailand are forging a more meaningful path.
It¡¯s beautiful to see women rise to the forefront of a sport where we once thought only men with bulky muscles, agility and roaring sixes and tumbling wickets belonged. Women and much of what they did in 2021 are taking cricket to new heights.
The following achievements and occurrences proved that Women¡¯s cricket is blossoming:
Some say she¡¯s the Chris Gayle of the Windies women¡¯s team, whilst others remark she¡¯s the game¡¯s most destructive batter around. Though in truth, when Deandra Dottin walks out into the middle, the bowlers get jittery and the bat begins to produce the grunts, thuds and all kinds of sounds.
Something that wasn¡¯t on display in the T20 world cup for Dottin, who had a quiet and unsuccessful series, but that very thing that Pakistan women saw much to their chagrin as the dominant right hander crushed the hosts in the recent 3-match ODIs.
In scoring, rather whacking a career-best 132 that came off just 146 deliveries, the batter who usually comes in the middle and often, lower-middle order trounced the likes of Fatima Sana, Aliya Riaz and others as an opener.
In a powerful display of big hitting that further charged an electrifying contest at Karachi, Dottin scored 84 of her 132 runs by way of hits to the fence and proved once again that the team wasn¡¯t only dependent on the great captain Stafanie Taylor. And that together, Taylor and Dottin still epitomise the smash sisters of Caribbean cricket.
But one wonders whether the others in the line-up that often looks vulnerable to befalling of a flurry of wickets, Chedean Nation, Shemaine Campbelle can also take up the responsibility to make the women¡¯s side a truly dominant force?
One of the finest ambassadors of the game, to be honest, Mignon du Preez had a remarkable run in 2021 and became, one of the glowing success stories of 2021 where women¡¯s cricket was concerned.?
The only Proteas woman batter to have coached a men¡¯s side, du Preez was a vital cog in the South African armory as the tourists made lightwork of India in India in the ODI and T20 series, something that doesn¡¯t happen all too often.
But it was her breezy batting and north of a run-a-ball scoring rate in cricket¡¯s shortest format that cut one of the game¡¯s nicest personalities in a different league altogether.
The ever-smiling former captain of South Africa took to the WBBL in 2021 akin to a magician habitual of stunning crowds in a major sellout.?
She struck 414 whirlwind ¡®runs in the premier T20 league-based contest for women¡¯s sport taking only 360 deliveries to do so.?
In so doing, the bedrock of Protean middle order batting carved a powerful 87 for her Hobart Hurricanes against Sydney Thunder, an occasion where the respected right-hander amassed 60 percent of her side¡¯s total.
Going strong at 32, Mignon du Preez is cricket¡¯s nice way of telling one and all that it is possible to be successful and grounded at the same time and that instances such as rubbing one¡¯s triumphs on another¡¯s face belong to theatrics and have little space in gentle conduct.
The Australians. The mightiest. The mammoths. The legends. The ever-ebullient ¡®never-say-die¡¯ epitomisers?on the field had, as per normal, an excellent 2021 where they stretched their unbeaten streak in ODIs to 26 contests.?
This was when a visiting Indian side halted the unprecedented and very dominant Australian march to greatness by winning the 3rd ODI at Mackay all thanks to a Jhulan Goswami special.
But in all that they did, crushing India in both T20Is and ODIs and defeating the White Ferns in their own territory, the Meg Lanning side proved just what it means to play a dominant brand of cricket.
Upholding that template of game where there¡¯s no one particular cricketing idol or star that drives success but where every single Australian contributes to the team¡¯s cause.?
In the games against New Zealand, Rachael Haynes, an oldguard of Australian cricket, produced a memorable 87 off 105 deliveries whilst Schutt took 7 wickets in the ODIs as the team whitewashed a powerful Kiwi unit.
Overall, Meg Lanning¡¯s mercurial leadership coupled with useful accumulation of runs in the middle order held Australia together, the side benefitting hugely from the return of the greatest all rounder in the current firmament of the game- Ellyse Perry.
In giving an extraordinary demonstration of power hitting in one of white-ball cricket¡¯s prime occasions, the T20 world cup qualifier, Ireland¡¯s baby-faced Gaby Lewis turned an assassin with the bat during her stunning century.
An inning that really put the German bowlers to the sword, Lewis¡¯ maiden century and a first by any Irish woman cricketer in a T20 international was undoubtedly one of the major reasons that made 2021 a year of women¡¯s cricket.
The simple but unassuming customer with the bat, Gaby Lewis was only 14 when she¡¯d turned out for an international for her nation (vs Proteas women) and seven years later, as she¡¯s peaking to big form, there¡¯s reason to think women¡¯s cricket in Ireland is in great hands.
Attacking against both spin and pace, and severe against anything bowled short, Lewis¡¯ ton came off only 60 deliveries and featured 11 fours and 3 mighty sixes.
Thus far, she¡¯s already hit 5 fifties in T20Is and is just 5 runs away from reaching 1000 T20I runs, not too bad for someone who¡¯s barely out of her teen years.??
There are teams in the women¡¯s sphere that play pure spellbinding cricket. Think Australia and England. Then there are those that constantly challenge the authority of the best names on the scene, think the White Ferns of New Zealand and Team India.
Finally, there are the rising names that given their love for sport appear to have what it takes to be dominant powers in the future.?
You¡¯d put Thailand women¡¯s national cricket team any day in that bracket. A unit one simply can¡¯t take lightly. A team that left the West Indies huffing and puffing in the T20 world cup 2020 encounter and a team that played its brand of hard, grafting and cautious cricket with noted success in 2021.
On their maiden tour to Zimbabwe, the Thailand women¡¯s national side marked with players of audacious talent in Kamchomphu, Chaiwai, Sutthiruang, Boochatham and Chantham, left the hosts stunned.
They squared of the unofficial ODI series taking 2 games whilst losing as many before ultimately holding the upperhand in the T20Is that followed.
Not a team that comprises of bits-and-pieces cricketers but all round talents that¡¯ll one day become winning stars, Thailand spun Zimbabwe out of the T20I context as the experienced Boochatham took 11 wickets in the 3-match series. She¡¯s a bowler who anyways bowls at an astonishingly miser economy of under 4 in the briefest format of the game.
A career-best 88 of the bat of Chantham spanked Zimbabwe a great deal whilst Chanida Sutthiruang, a serious candidate to be among the best all rounders in the game, provided the good with the bat during her stroke-filled 46 in the 3rd T20I.
While Thailand suffered heartbreak thanks to a last minute COVID emergency that led to ICC cancelling the November-bound 50-over world cup qualifiers for the 2022 event, the team played an inspired brand of cricket in beating the likes of Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and USA in the recent event.
While Pakistan and Windies women progressed ahead, there was bitter disappointment for the side that could certainly have challenged any side under the sun for it loves to epitomize the ¡®never-say-die¡¯ attitude on any given day on the cricket field.?
How many teams would have bundled out USA, a side far more experienced than them for 93 in 43 overs? In the contest against Bangladesh, the veteran opening batter Tippoch struck a magnificent 69 and then it was all down to Boochatham, who with her excellent fifer downed a team that¡¯s no slouch in white-ball cricket.
In the game versus Zimbabwe, Chantham, Tippoch and Nannapat made 135 of their side¡¯s 247 runs explaining just why the top five in their batting department carry the bulk of the team¡¯s scoring- and to good effect.?
On November 17 this year, batting hurricane Smriti Mandhana etched history in the Women¡¯s Big Bash League as she scored the first ever century by an Indian in the WBBL.
Although her team went down fighting the towering Melbourne Renegades¡¯ score of 175, ending four runs short of the big total, that Smriti on her own fired 114 of those was remarkable and a moment to cherish.
For a batter who had been successfully kept quiet by the Proteas women on their magnificent victorious tour to India, Smriti Mandhana seemed freer Down Under and batted with carefree abandon, putting bowlers to the sword.
As she batted with the might of a lioness and thudded boundaries and sixes at will, Mandhana proved at the end of the day just why¡¯s she rated so much at this level of the game.
Yet another sight that made for massive viewing was her heroic opening run stand worth 167 runs with with Shafali Verma in the only Test played in England against a Katherine Brunt, Sophie Ecclestone and Anya Shrubsole powered attack.?
Playing the quiet grafter during her 215-minute-stay at a turning track in Bristol, Smriti Mandhana was all patience whilst Verma played the daring act in her 96, a dream start to a Test career.?
One of the most dependable, reliable and elegant batters in the white-ball game at present, it¡¯s not for nothing that they say the say the future belongs to Jemimah Rodrigues of India. And in proving exactly that thousands of miles away from the home comfort of batting on cushy, somewhat batting-friendly wickets of the sub-continent, Mumbai¡¯s Jemimah Rodrigues made some history in The Hundred, one of the most widely-followed cricketing events of 2021.
In becoming the only batter in the tournament to go past 200 runs, scoring as many as 241 from just 5 contests for the Northern Superchargers, Jemimah struck a whirlwind century and even succeeded in earning what was called the compliment of the tournament.
Kevin Pietersen¡¯s remark that ¡°Currently, Jemimah Rodriguez is my favourite cricketer!¡±
Her game echoes a sense of maturity about it as she carves boundaries neatly on either side of the wicket, whilst playing a vital part in building stands. The current spine of the Indian middle order has both time and fitness on her hands and there¡¯s little reason to doubt why the gifted right-hander cannot go a long mile in the women¡¯s game.
2021 was quite frankly an exhilarating year for women¡¯s cricket in Germany. If there¡¯s a team on the European circuit that¡¯s been constantly making giant strides toward reaching the list of prominent nations who play the sport with might and skill, then it¡¯s Germany. Take their 5-nil hammering of Austria in 2020 for example. A series where, at the backdrop of quintessential German skill and precision, the women¡¯s game returned to action in what was largely a COVID-marred suspension last year.
But even as this year produced a mixed bag of results for one of the sport¡¯s most inspiring stories, there was much that Germany did that made rich news.
While competing in the ICC Women¡¯s T20 World cup Europe regional qualifier Germany certainly found themselves awfully short, winning one in four games being thrashed by Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands, their performance in the bi-lateral series against France stood out.?
In delivering a mega 5-nil hammering to Emmanuelle Brelivet¡¯s ladies, the Anuradha Doddaballapur-led side produced a spell of riveting performances that were pegged around an all round display of skill and daring.
With the bat as also with the ball, Germany¡¯s Karnataka, India-born captain Anuradha produced a spellbinding performance, clinching 7 wickets (including a 4-for) from 5 games whilst also hitting 74 runs with the bat.?
That¡¯s when the smiling spinner went wicketless in the first and the final game of the series. Other useful performances came by virtue of Janet Ronalds¡¯ 35 off 31, the first and only German woman to have hit a T20 century, as scored the last year.
But, it were the German bowlers and the massive talent in accumulating dot balls that made the French batters burdened by a mountain of deliveries they couldn¡¯t score of. Something, that ultimately upheld the German dominance over a familiar opponent.
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