Cricket, they said, is a gentleman’s game where values like dignity, focus, calm and perseverance matter the most. On most days in today’s era, the above may read like a funny limerick in old books that speak of only the wonders of Test cricket. Books that do not really speak a lot about the contemporary structure of the game. If it could be said, Cricket is a game where gentle feelings and values have little to do where it’s the bludgeoning blade and the smashing blows hold no regard whatsoever for sloppy bowling. Wondering why? Because little Amelia Kerr, 17-year-old record-breaking New Zealand women’s cricketer has achieved a feat that specifies just the above/
Ireland Women’s, it could be said, were disconsolate, a few days back. The mere thought of having being slaughtered courtesy White Ferns captain Suzie Bates 151 might have given them nightmares. Who wishes to sacrifice sleep-time, especially during the night? But that feat was a few days ago. It seemed things would get normal and Ireland would forgive and forget their tormentors for riling them up, on their way to 490- you read that right!
Just that a few hours ago, as New Zealand Women’s team plundered Ireland again, the hosts having no idea what was going on, on their way to 430, new player Amelia Kerr smashed 232. Not only that, but the Wellington-born remained not out. In modern cricket, a format of the sport much debated as being one that favours batsmen and batswomen, breaking records is an everyday phenomenon.
But to have a geeky-looking teenager score a gargantuan 232 at an age where women girls are still spending more time on mobile apps and in makeup stores is utterly distraught. The headlines, world-over, in the immediate aftermath of Amelia Kerr’s record-breaking 232 are dealing in cosmological terms. Which was the last batswoman who managed a score as meaty and mighty as Amelia Kerr?
Any answers? It was Belinda Klark’s 229, wherein the former Australian captain and legendary ODI player broke all sorts of records on her way to reaching ODI women’s cricket’s only double century. As Amelia Kerr joined forces with Leigh Kasperek, the bespectacled bowler who struck 113, records tumbled again, cricket was lifted in spirits by a highly inexperienced cricketer and made to wear a crown of record-shattering glory by a teenage girl.
232 is a lot of runs. On most other days- normal days, let it be told- it’s what team’s collect from their lot of 50 overs. Just that against Ireland- purely on current form, aptly described as White Ferns patients- Amelia Kerr decided she’d love to have a walk down the cricketing record books.
What was most interesting about New Zealand women’s cricket’s latest white-ball smasher Amelia Kerr is that how carefreely did she go about destroying Ireland. Reserving a love to strike grounded strokes, a record 32 fours were struck by the sweetly smiling girl while just a couple of half-a-dozen were deposited into the stands that were witnessing the carnage.
Cricket likes a great striker of the ball. In a lighter vein, in fact, it could be said that cricket likes to ride high on the prowess of great striking by fine strikers of the cricket ball. In here lies the enigma of Amelia Kerr. She likes to make the game strikingly beautiful by striking the ball hard as if attempting to beautify the stroke. In the contest against Ireland, it seemed, Amelia Kerr’s only effort was to reform the “Gentlemen’s game” by giving it a modern make-over, sprinkling it with feisty big hits, melodious shots through the covers, peppering it up with a significant record-breaking feat.
Here’s what is the most sparkling facet about the girl. 17-year-old New Zealand Women’s cricket’s latest sensation was only 9 years old when the former great Belinda Clark reached international cricket. Today, as the world is yet to come to terms with the fact that its the women’s team of New Zealand that have established the highest-ever team score in an ODI contest (ever), there’s’ a new prodige, if it could be said, who is here to bully others. Is this New Zealand’s White Ferns’ finest wake up call to close rivals in the “big four” quarter- India, South Africa and England, included?