ICC Best Women’s Cricketer 2022: Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award – Four incredible stars at the top of their game have been nominated for the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year 2022. We take a look at their efforts and celebrate their achievements throughout the calendar year. Follow Latest ICC Awards 2022 updates with InsidesSport.IN
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ICC Best Women’s Cricketer 2022: Smriti Mandhana nominated for prestigious Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award, Amelia Kerr, Beth Mooney & Nat Sciver also in race
Nat Sciver – England
1346 runs and 22 wickets in 33 matches
The year that was
Nat Sciver was at her dominant best across formats in 2022, finishing the 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 what she is capable of in the longer format, scoring 242 runs in two matches. She scored her maiden Test century with a superb 169* against South Africa in June.
Sciver made handy contributions with the ball as well, bagging 22 wickets across all formats in 2022. In the first ODI of the bilateral series against South Africa, she registered career-best figures of 4/59, showing her ability to change the game with the ball.
Best performance
Sciver’s best performance came on the biggest stage possible – the Women’s Cricket World Cup Final – against arch-rivals Australia. Unfortunately, her heroic effort went in vain as she found no support at the other end chasing a mammoth 357.
Walking out to bat at 38/2, Sciver batted brilliantly to absorb the pressure of the final and kept England in the hunt till the very end by keeping the required run rate within each. However, wickets kept tumbling at the other end as Sciver watched helplessly.
At 213/8, there was little hope but Sciver along with Charlie Dean managed to ignite some fire with a 65-run stand. Sciver eventually ran out of partners, but not before she scored her career-best 148* laced with 15 fours and a six.
Smriti Mandhana – India
1290 runs in 38 matches
The year that was
The winner of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year 2021 is in the running once again to bag the coveted price in 2022.
Smriti Mandhana continued her rich vein of form in international cricket for the second year running, finishing as India’s highest run-scorer across formats. She showed her incredible prowess in the white-ball formats and was the highest run-getter in T20Is (594 runs) and the second-highest in ODIs (696 runs) for India.
Mandhana made her presence felt at both the major tournaments this year – the Women’s Cricket World Cup and the Commonwealth Games. In the latter, she was one of the driving forces in India going through to the final and bagging the silver medal in the first-ever Women’s cricket event at the Commonwealth Games.
Best performance
Smriti Mandhana 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.
Chasing a 188 for the win, Mandhana provided an excellent start to the innings along with fellow opener Shafali Verma. Despite a minor hiccup where India lost Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues in quick succession, the star opener kept the foot on the pedal and ensured that Australia never ran away with the game.
She got to her fifty in 37 balls and went berserk thereafter. When she got out in the 17th over, it looked like she missed the chance to take India to victory but thanks to the lower-order blitzkrieg, India managed to tie the game as the match went into the Super Over.
Mandhana came out to bat and made amends for not finishing off the game, smashing a four and six as she added 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.
ICC Best Women’s Cricketer 2022: Smriti Mandhana nominated for prestigious Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award, Amelia Kerr, Beth Mooney & Nat Sciver also in race
Amelia Kerr – New Zealand
1003 runs and 30 wickets in 32 matches
The year that was
2022 will be remembered as the year New Zealand all-rounder Amelia Kerr came into her own as an all-rounder, 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 – the right-hander registered four scores of 50-plus in the five-match ODI series against India, including a sublime century in the second match. She carried her form over to the 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 marked 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.
Best performance
Kerr’s remarkable performance in the second ODI against India in the five-match series in February was a shining example of her all-round exploits on the cricket field.
Chasing 271, New Zealand were in trouble early having lost three wickets inside the Powerplay. Her crucial 128-run stand for the fourth with Maddy Green settled all the early jitters and put India on the backfoot.
However, once the partnership was broken, wickets kept falling at regular intervals but Kerr was undeterred at the other end. Notching up the second ODI century of her career, she batted through till the end and saw the team in a thrilling match.
Before changing the game with the bat, Kerr also scalped one wicket and completed four catches to show a glimpse of her all-round prowess.
Beth Mooney – Australia
915 runs from 25 matches
The year that was
Despite not managing to score a century over the last 12 months, 2022 may have been Mooney’s best year of her career yet as she elevated her game to an even higher level on the back of some added consistency and new-found maturity.
Mooney did manage eight scores in excess of 50 in 2022 (four in T20Is, three in ODIs and one at Test level) and six not outs in 50-over cricket during the year helped the Australia star 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 showcase event, with her haul of 330 runs bettered by only five other players and her average of 110 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.
Best performance
Mooney’s best knock of 2022 came recently, during Australia’s T20I series victory over India away from home when the left-hander plundered an unbeaten 89* from just 57 deliveries in a Player of the Match performance in Mumbai.
The 28-year-old shared an opening partnership of 73 with fellow veteran Alyssa Healy and then upped the ante when Tahlia McGrath joined her at the crease to help Australia successfully chase down India’s decent total of 172/5 with 11 deliveries remaining.
Mooney hit a whopping 16 boundaries during her superb individual innings and never looked out of control as she used all her experience against a world-class India attack.
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.
ICC Best Women’s Cricketer 2022: Smriti Mandhana nominated for prestigious Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award, Amelia Kerr, Beth Mooney & Nat Sciver also in race
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Editors pick
