The women batters of the World Cup
Taking a look at who does what, where.
You probably know Alyssa Healy from being awesome. She made 170 from 138 to win Australia the last 50 over World Cup. She is the real deal. But that was less than a year ago.
And since the start of 2021, this is how she goes in the powerplay of T20. Not only is she surprisingly middle of the back, but she's also not even one of the better players there.
But the average is the terrible one, she is really struggling to stay in. This should be a bigger narrative coming into the World Cup.
But women's data is much harder to find than men's. Everything we have here comes from internationals, CPL, the Hundred and the BBL. I am sure it is not complete, but this idea is to give you a look at different players and what they can do.
I have looked at sections of the game, splitting things up by powerplay, middle and death.
Powerplay
Let us start with the explosive players.
Shafali Verma is striking very fast for India, she's only averaging 25, but at this rate, it makes a pretty loud sound. She is not even the youngest player up in this part of it either. You can find Alice Capsey up here as well. These are two of the younger players coming through who can smash it. Short-time top-order explosive players.
But Sophia Dunkley might be the most interesting up here. Her strike rate is the same as Verma, but she has averaged nearly 40. The ability to combine those two things is really rare in the women's game.
I need to point out Orla Prendergast here. She is from Ireland, and so her knocks have mostly been against Pakistan, Netherlands and Scotland. However, she certainly profiles as someone who can hit. Will be interesting to see if that translates to this level.
Also worth stopping to chat about Lizelle Lee because she is still at the top of the list, even without many internationals. Of course, she won't be at this World Cup because she retired after failing to lose enough weight for a fitness Test. Hell of a player to be watching on as a fan.
In the yellow, you see our anchors. Beth Mooney, Ellyse Villani and Georgina Redmayne are all comfortably scoring above a run-a-ball, but are in a cluster on their own.
Then you have this group back further with Laura Wolvaardt and Meg Lanning. Probably the two best technical batters in the game. The Wolf is a fraction above a run-a-ball, while Lanning is actually slower.
But there are two pretty obvious outliers here. Nat Sciver and Harmanpreet Kaur are big hitters later in the innings, but as you can see, when they come in the powerplay they are knocking it around. But they are not being dismissed for doing it, this is a really odd pattern from two fairly similar players. Harmanpreet scoring this slow in a nightmare would surprise me.
Middle
Since we started with how poor Healy has been, shall we look at what happens when she escapes the powerplay and is set?
Her average doubles and she starts to smoke fools everywhere. There are two questions worth asking here, should she be opening, and if she does, should be bat even slower to ensure she gets to the middle and does some damage? A 160-strike rate is obscene. And you can see how far she is from everyone else.
Then you have this band of players here who are striking 140-ish. For India, Smriti Mandhana will have to continue to haul the heaviest load in here. She is also a good player in South Africa, so she is the key to this for India. Grace Harris and Danni Wyatt are more high-energy players, here for a good time, not a long one.
Nida Dar has really improved over the last few years. She's combining a high average here with decent enough striking. This is a really good record. Plus, she calls herself lady boom boom. So, a lot to like here.
Others are struggling of course. Shafali takes a massive step back here after her starts. This is one of the more extreme post-powerplay drops you will see. Richa Ghosh is struggling here too, a combination of no runs and not fast.
Jemimah Rodrigues is a slow starter in the PP but really picks up in the middle. Tahlia McGrath has done very well for Australia but not as much in franchise cricket. This is the sort of pattern we didn't see with the powerplay. Scoring consistently with a good strike rate. You kind of had one or the other up top.
It is of course worth mentioning Ellyse Perry in this. Her intent is still an issue, but she has gotten much faster in the last year. But as has always been the case, she does not get out.
Now let's get to the other massive outlier. Beth Mooney. She was 37/107 in the powerplay. So really at the head of the steadier starters. To explode to a strike rate of over 140 is huge, to do it while basically not being dismissed is just silly.
Death
I did not expect to get to the end and see Laura Woolvaardt come to the party this hard.
I think this may show she is going too slow at the top. Perhaps she doesn't trust her batting depth. But she is the prototype anchor and explodes at the end.
The more typical anchors are probably down with Perry.
There is a weird grouping in the middle here of two players who are not quite hitters or nudgers. McGrath and Rodrigues kind of have a bit of both about their games.
I want to shout out Annabel Sutherland here. Sutherland is different because, in women's cricket, you don't get as many late-order hitters. Usually, the top order has to go deep. But Sutherland can bat eight for Australia, and then she comes in and slaps it around at almost two runs a ball. That is a massive advantage for Australia.
But, shall we just finish with Beth Mooney? It says something that she has been highlighted in all three sections of the game. Which is taking the piss really. She is near the power hitters, but really, she isn't one. She is so skilful and a fantastic run-getter at this level. She is an above-average player in every part of the game, in one section she is the best, and in the other top five.
According to the ICC rankings, she is not the number one T20I batter in the game. But on the Jarrod Kimber rankings, she is number one. Daylight is second.
If you want more on the women and their batting, it is worth listening to my latest podcast.