P.K. Ajith Kumar
During the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand recently, Courtney Walsh spoke of a cricketer who reminded him of his former teammate Viv Richards. The West Indies coach said Deandra Dottin had the kind of never-say-die attitude and self-belief that the legend had.
Like Richards, Dottin could also be destructive with the bat. She is in fact one of the hardest hitters in the women’s game.
She scored the first hundred in the women’s T20I in 2010 and it came off just 38 balls, in the opening match of the World T20 against South Africa at Basseterre.
The closest someone came was in 2019 when Australia’s Alyssa Healey reached her 100 off 47 balls against Sri Lanka in 2019. The 30-year-old West Indies all-rounder feels only two women could break her record – New Zealand’s Sophie Devine or Kiran Navgire, the uncapped batter from Solarpur who has become the newest sensation in women’s cricket.
Kiran had slammed a 34-ball 69 at the Women’s T20 Challenge in Pune recently, for Velocity against Trailblazers. Though she wasn’t playing in that match, Dottin had watched it.
“She kind of reminded me of myself,” Dottin told The Hindu. “Her hitting the first ball she faced (outside of domestic cricket) for a six was special. You wouldn’t find too many female cricketers getting off the mark with a six.”
She said she had congratulated Kiran on her innings when she met her on the morning after. “The best thing about her was that she didn’t overplay her part,” she said. She played to her strengths.”
Dottin said the players like Kiran showcased India’s bench strength. “This is the fourth edition of the Women’s T20 Challenge and you could see a lot of improvement over the years,” she said. “I found this edition more competitive than the last one (at Sharjah). It was good to see more runs and boundaries being scored this year and to see a score like 180 becoming a competitive one.”
EOM
