England’s seasoned opening batter Danni Wyatt-Hodge has edged out South Africa’s rising all-rounder Nadine de Klerk and Bangladesh’s emerging batter Sharmin Akter to claim the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s Player of the Month award for November 2024.
The 32-year-old veteran batter became the third Englishwoman to claim the ICC Player of the Month award this year. This first-time honor recognized her standout performance in England’s dominant 3-0 clean sweep over hosts South Africa, where she amassed 142 runs at an impressive average of 71.00 and a remarkable strike rate of 163.21 across three outings.
Wyatt-Hodge thanked her teammates and coaches for this honour, stating, “I am delighted and honoured to win this award. I’d like to say a big thank you to all my team-mates and coaches who I work with who encourage me every day. We had a great T20I series against South Africa where our team performed brilliantly with some great displays across the board.
“On a personal level, it’s been really pleasing to perform consistently and the aim individually and collectively as a team is to continue this as we build-up to the Ashes and another big year of cricket coming up next year.”
Building on her impactful performances at the T20 World Cup in October and a strong showing in a subsequent T20 competition, Wyatt-Hodge entered the South Africa series brimming with confidence.
While the series opener saw her dismissed for a run-a-ball 11, she bounced back in the second T20I with a scintillating 45-ball 78, powering England to a formidable total of 204, which they defended comfortably by 36 runs to seal the series.
Chasing a modest 125 to complete the cleansweep, Wyatt-Hodge once again shone for England, top-scoring with an unbeaten 31-ball 53 to guide her team to victory. Despite her back-to-back match-winning knocks—coming at extraordinary strike rates of 170.96 and 173.33—she missed out on both the Player of the Match and Player of the Series accolades.
Nonetheless, during her career-best T20I knock against South Africa of 78, she achieved a significant milestone, becoming the first Englishwoman to surpass 3,000 T20I runs and the second-fastest overall to reach the mark by balls faced.
Fastest to 3000 Women’s T20I runs by balls faced:
2,321 Alyssa Healy (Australia)
2,350 Danni Wyatt-Hodge (England)
2,443 Beth Mooney (Australia)
2,461 Smriti Mandhana (India)
2,470 Sophie Devine (New Zealand)
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