The day Dottin went dotty
Deandra Dottin doesn’t like dot balls.
On Sunday, she had to put up with five of them… on her way to the fastest half-century in women’s Twenty20 cricket.
Sadly, her 22-ball blitz was not enough for victory as West Indies went down to Australia by eight wickets. At least, though, she made her mark after missing out in the first two games against South Africa and New Zealand.
Australia had a pretty good idea what was coming, after seeing the 17-year-old – who has only played the game seriously for three years - smash a high-speed fifty against them in the ICC Women’s World Cup earlier this year.
“The last thing I said to the girls before they went out was: ‘Just be ready for an onslaught, just hold your nerve, take a breath and keep fighting back,” said Australia coach Richard McInnes.
Fast bowler Rene Farrell was taking deeper breaths than most during her first over. Dottin pulled her first two balls through midwicket, added a third four through mid on, chipped the next to the square leg fence, played an exemplary forward defensive – one of those detestable dot balls – and then blazed the final ball over extra cover for her fifth boundary of the over.
The powerful Barbadian had struck nine fours and a six before a backfoot force was beautifully snapped up off her toes by Alex Blackwell to end Dottin’s innings.
Dottin, a former javelin, shot putt and discus champion at the Caribbean youth games before taking up cricket, said: “At first I thought she’d picked it up on the bounce but she managed to get her fingers under it.
“I hit it well. I should have kept it down… or hit it over her head. That would have been better.”
West Indies ended on 135-8 before Australia cantered home with almost three overs to spare.
To put her innings into context, West Indies made 59 runs for the loss of one wicket off their first five overs, before adding 76 for the loss of seven more batters in the final 15.
“The record for the fastest 50 is a consolation of sorts, it’s good,” Dottin added, “But the result was so disappointing.
“My innings? That’s the way I play, that’s my mentality. I like Chris Gayle and Viv Richards. That the way I like to play – I just attack.”
Australia captain Karen Rolton put it another way: “We’ve probably never seen such hard hitting in women’s cricket.”
The ICC World Twenty20 2009 involves 12 of the top men’s teams and the top eight women’s line-ups playing at four venues – Lord’s, The Oval, Trent Bridge and Taunton – in the pinnacle of international cricketing action.
The defending men’s champion is India, which beat Pakistan in the final of the inaugural event, in South Africa in 2007. This is the first staging of the women’s tournament.
A limited number of tickets are still available for the ICC World Twenty20 2009. Further details can be found at:https://eticketing.co.uk/iccwt20****
