Women’s cricket in 2019: Ellyse Perry, Mali Women, Anjali Chand, a Bangladesh-Thailand celebration, Sophie Devine feature in talking points

Star of the year – Ellyse Perry

A part of the cricket fraternity considers Ellyse Perry the greatest cricketer of all time, male or female. She certainly enhanced her reputation this year, with a hundred and a fifty in the only Test of the year as well as the best ever figures (7/22)in the history of Women’s ODIs.

Her aggregates for the year demonstrate how good she has been:
116, 1/44, 76* in only Test
12 ODIs, 441 runs (average 73.50), 21 wickets (average 13.52, economy 3.78)
9 T20Is, 150 runs (SR 113), 6 wickets (economy 5.82)
9 WBBL matches, 469 runs (SR 112), 4 wickets (economy 5.80)

Let us not forget here that Perry has played World Cup Football (she scored a goal in her last match) and is a popular author of children’s books.

Dud of the year – Mali Women

ICC’s decision to award T20I status to all 20-over international contests produced some extremely lopsided results, none of which matches the abject show by Mali Women in Kwibuka Women’s T20 Tournament 2019.

Mali scored 6, 11, 10, 30/9, 17, and 14 in their 6 matches. They batted first in three of these matches. In the other three they conceded 314/2, 246/1, and 285/1. This included a 314-run defeat in a 20-over match against Uganda Women.

Moment of the year – Bangla-Thai celebration

Bangladesh beat Thailand in the final of the Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers. However, despite the result, both sides qualified for the big tournament in Australia, starting this February.

Immediately after the final, both sides got together, formed a circle broke into a spontaneous dance with a chorus of “we are going to Australia” that immediately went viral.

Performance of the year – Anjali Chand

Anjali Chand’s international debut, for Nepal in the SAG Women’s Cricket at Pokhara, will go down as one of the most sensational in history. Chand finished with ridiculous figures of 2.1-2-0-6, the best in T20I history, to bowl out Maldives for 16.

When Nepal played Maldives again five days later, Chand had 4-3-1-4.

Quote of the year – Sophie Devine

“I’ve played international cricket for close to 13 years. And I’ve never played a Test. So I don’t even know what the red ball performs like.”
– Sophie Devine emphasises on the fading away of Women’s Tests