New Zealand all-rounder Suzie Bates has completed 10,000 international runs, becoming the first New Zealand female cricketer to do so.
The White Ferns are on a tour of England for a limited-over series; the hosts whitewashed New Zealand 3-0 in the ODIs, while New Zealand is trailing in the five-match T20I series 3-0. Ahead of the 3rd T20I, Suzie required just four shy of her 10,000 international runs milestone and in the process of scoring 38 off 27 balls, she achieved the milestone.
Suzie Bates made her international debut in 2006 against India, and since then, she has never looked back, becoming one of the stalwarts in women’s international cricket. Her first fifty came against India in her second ODI match, where she scored 69, and she later smashed her first international century against India, scoring 122 at the age of 19.
In her early years, Suzie Bates juggled two sports, representing New Zealand in Basketball at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In 2011, she was offered the captaincy of the White Ferns. Her impressive batting performance continued, earning her the player of the tournament in the 2013 World Cup hosted by India.
After completing 10,000 international runs in her 314th inning, she became the third overall batter to achieve this milestone, after England’s Charlotte Edwards in 2016 and India’s Mithali Raj in 2021. She also became the first player to achieve the feat of 10000 runs in international cricket without any in Test cricket.
Though the right-hand batter has struggled in the ongoing series against England and is yet to score a fifty, she has been a key player in the White Ferns’ top order, holding the record for most fifties in the Women’s T20 World Cup (8). She was the third player across both men’s and women’s cricket to score more than 1000 runs in the T20 World Cup, achieving this in the 2023 Women’s T20 World Cup. No other batter has accumulated over 4200 runs in the T20I format, with Suzie Bates surpassing even the likes of Virat Kohli in the shorter format. She also holds the record for the most 50+ scores in T20 format, with her highest score of an unbeaten 124 coming against South Africa at Taunton in the tri-series involving England and South Africa in 2018.
Suzie Bates has played 163 matches in the ODI format, scoring more than 5700 runs at an average of 40, with 34 fifties and 13 centuries. She has also played over 158 matches in T20 Internationals, accumulating over 4200 runs at an average close to 30, with 28 fifties and a century to her name. The New Zealand batter has broken several individual records and will look to end the trophy drought for her national side, which has not won a World Cup since 2000.