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The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced four nominees for the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year 2022, on Friday.
1. Nat Sciver – England:
(1346 runs and 22 wickets in 33 matches)
Nat Sciver was at her dominant best across formats in 2022, finishing the calendar year as the top-scorer in Test and second highest in ODIs.
Sciver did the bulk of her scoring in ODI cricket, scoring 833 runs at an average of 59.50 and a strike rate of 91.43. She played a pivotal role in England’s journey to the final of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, where she was the third-highest run-getter in the tournament with 436 runs in eight matches.
The English star also showed her ability in the longer format of the game, scoring 242 runs in two Test matches. She scored her maiden Test century with a superb 169* against South Africa in June.
Sciver also made some handy contributions with the ball, taking 22 wickets across all formats in 2022. In the first ODI against South Africa, she registered her career-best figures of 4/59, showing her ability to change the game with the ball.
2. Smriti Mandhana – India:
(1290 runs in 38 matches)
Previous year’s winner of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year 2021 is once again in the race to bag the coveted price in 2022.
Smriti Mandhana continued her brilliant form in international cricket for the second year running, finishing as India’s highest run-scorer across formats. She showed her incredible skillset in the white-ball formats and was the highest run-getter in T20Is with 594 runs and the second-highest in ODIs with 696 runs for India.
26-year-old Mandhana made her presence felt at both the Women’s Cricket World Cup and the Commonwealth Games in 2022. In the latter, she played an important role in India going through to the final and bagging the silver medal in the first-ever Women’s cricket event at the Commonwealth Games.
She produced one of the most memorable T20I innings in recent times during his explosive 49-ball 79 against Australia in front of a packed DY Patil Stadium.
India managed to tie the game as the match went into the Super Over with Mandhana coming out to bat, smashing a four and six to add 13 crucial runs in three balls. Australia failed to reach the target of 21 as India handed the visitors their only T20I loss of the year.
3. Amelia Kerr – New Zealand:
(1003 runs and 30 wickets in 32 matches)
2022 will be remembered as the year of New Zealand all-rounder Amelia Kerr, with the 22-year-old contributing consistently with the bat and the ball across formats.
Kerr couldn’t have asked for a better start to the year as she registered four scores of 50-plus in the five-match ODI series against India in February, including a brilliant century in the second match. She carried her form over to the ODI World Cup as well, where she was the third-highest run-getter for New Zealand with 201 runs.
In the shorter format, Kerr showed a big improvement in her batting, accumulating 327 runs at an average of 32.70, compared to her career average of 22.66.
With the ball in hand, the leg-spinner was more than a handful for the opponents and bagged 30 wickets across formats.
Kerr’s remarkable performance was in the second ODI against India in the five-match series where she scored an unbeaten 119 off 135 balls and took 1/43 from her eight overs. She won the Player of the Match award for her match-winning all-round performance as New Zealand chased down the target of 271 to beat India by 3 wickets.
4. Beth Mooney – Australia:
(915 runs from 25 matches)
Although Beth Mooney failed to score a century in 2022, the last 12 months have been Mooney’s best year of her career as she elevated her game on the back of some added consistency and new-found maturity.
28-year-old Mooney managed eight scores in excess of 50 in 2022 (four in T20Is, three in ODIs and one at Test level) and six not-outs in ODIs during the calendar year which helped the Australia star to finish with an ODI average of more than 100 over the last 12 months.
It was against old foe England in the Ashes series on home soil that Mooney’s year commenced and it was during the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand that the opener really shone.
Amazingly Mooney was just dismissed three times during the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand and scored 330 runs, bettered by only five other players and her average of 110 was the best of any batter at the tournament.
Unsurprisingly Mooney did not slow down, with more dominant performances coming during Australia’s successful Commonwealth Games campaign and another two unbeaten half-centuries during the away series in India at the end of the year.
Mooney’s best knock of 2022 came recently, during Australia’s T20I series victory over India away from home when the left-hander scored an unbeaten 89* from just 57 deliveries in the first T20I to help Australia successfully chase down India’s decent total of 172/5 with 11 deliveries remaining. She won the Player of the Match award for her brilliant performance at the DY Patil Stadium, in Mumbai.
Mooney’s exploits helped Australia to a dominant 4-1 series triumph over India and it should come as no surprise to find out that the consistent opener scored more runs than any other player during the series.
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