Winning medals for the country is what every athlete desires.
Playing and winning a World Cup for the country is what every cricketer desires for and what’s better than being the star of that win?
This article focuses on five out of those many star women cricketers who have contributed big with the bat to their team’s victory at the World Cup, smashing centuries and even double centuries. In fact, it isn’t only about winning, performing well at such a big tournament in itself is a moment of pride for every player.
Let’s look at the top five highest individual scorers at the Women’s Cricket World Cup:
1. Belinda Clark: 229 Runs
One of the popular names of women cricket, Belinda Clark who has represented Australia in four World Cups, leading the team in three of them holds the record for the first and the only double century in the Women’s World Cup to date which is also the first of the only two double centuries Women’s ODI has witnessed. Clark achieved the historic feat in the 1997 World Cup, scoring an unbeaten 229 off just 155 balls in an innings that had 22 boundaries and a strike rate of 147.74 and thus helping her team record their highest ever ODI total and clinch a massive 363 runs victory against Denmark.
2. Chamari Athapaththu: 178 Runs
The next highest individual score of the Women’s World Cup was recorded in its last edition (2017) by Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu. She scored an unbeaten 178 off 143 balls at the strike rate of 124.47 with 22 fours and 6 sixes against Australia. Though Sri Lanka lost the game after an equally brilliant performance by Australian Captain Meg Lanning who smashed an unbeaten 152 helping her side take an easy 8 wickets victory with 37 balls to spare, Athapaththu was adjudged as the player of the match and got her name registered in the record book.
3. Charlotte Edwards: 173* Runs
The woman who has her name written in the top five of almost every record of women’s cricket, England’s Charlotte Edwards gets in here as well with the third-best Women’s World Cup score of an unbeaten 173 which was recorded on the same-day Women’s ODI got its first double ton scorer in Belinda Clark, back in December 1997. Opening the innings for her team against Ireland, Edwards played 155 balls to reach the score, hitting 19 boundaries at the strike rate of 111.61. Her performance helped England achieve a 208 runs victory over Ireland.
4. Harmanpreet Kaur: 171* Runs
Recording the highest individual score in the knockout stage of the Women’s World Cup with her unbeaten 171 is India’s T20I captain, Harmanpreet Kaur with the fourth-best World Cup score. Coming off just 115 balls with 20 fours and 7 sixes it was definitely a special one not just because it was Kaur at her best and that too at a World Cup semi-final, but because it came against the most successful team of women’s cricket, Australia, knocking them out from achieving another title. Her score also recorded the second-best ODI individual score by an Indian woman.
5. Stafanie Taylor: 171 Runs
Joining the list at fifth is one of the best players for West Indies, their all-rounder captain Stafanie Taylor. Though she equals her individual ODI highest score with Harmanpreet, the only reason why she stands at fifth has Kaur achieved it in less number of balls than her and remained unbeaten while Taylor got caught by Sri Lanka’s Athapaththu, though scoring enough to get her team an easy 209 runs victory. Achieved during the 2013 edition of the World, Taylor’s 171 came off 137 balls and had 18 fours and 2 sixes at the strike rate of 124.81.
These are just five of those many talented players women cricket has, and the list keeps on increasing as the success of women’s cricket grows.
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