The historic event of Cricket at the 2022 Commonwealth Games concludes in the city of Birmingham. Only three out of eight participant nations return to their homeland bagging laurels but it was the game of cricket that eventually turned out to be the winner after the successful inclusion of the sport.
Let’s have a look at the All-Star XI featuring the best players of the feminine cricket’s mega event.
Top Order: Smriti Mandhana, Beth Mooney (wk), Sophie Devine
Smriti was the third highest run-scorer of the competition, banking 159 runs from five innings. The star Indian opener was responsible for giving the Women in Blue good starts in each and every fixture of the camo except the night of the final where she got out early.
She scored those runs at a strike rate of 151.43 which is the highest among batters having 100+ runs and also struck the highest number of sixes (6) in this tournament.
The Aussie maestro turning into a clutch player
Mooney was the highest scorer of the Aussie innings in the gold medal contest and played a pivotal role in the triumph. She had a rough start to the CWG campaign after a couple of flop shows but then went on to show her true colours in the following fixtures. The 28-year-old opener contributed to a solid stand of 61 runs in the first innings to lay a strong foundation for the winning total in the Final.
Devine stood second in the run-scoring charts of the tournament and missed the pole position by just a difference of two runs. She scored 177 runs from the five appearances while Beth Mooney of the gold medal-winning Australia side had a tally of 179 runs. She kick-started the campaign with a 48-run stand against South Africa Women and also finished it off scoring 51 runs against the host Three Lioness.
Not just with the bat, but, the 32-year-old all-rounder also had a significant contribution with the ball. Especially, when bronzeware was on the line and she led the White Ferns to the podium with all-round power show. The Kiwi skipper fetched six wickets from five matches which made him the second-highest wicket-taker from the Kiwis camp.
Middle Order: Suzie Bates, Harmanpreet Kaur ©, Tahlia McGrath
Bates played a key role in guiding the White Ferns to their maiden bronze medal glory. Her presence in the New Zealand batting lineup added more strength due to her experience in this format.
In their opening CWG fixture, the veteran kiwi batter played an unbeaten knock of 91 runs against the Proteas bowling attack and it stood as the highest individual score throughout the competition.
Harman is renowned for turning up big when the stakes are high and she did exactly what everyone was expecting. The Indian captain was the pillar of the middle order and scored 137 runs from 4 innings and that too with a great strike rate of 139.80.
She was the highest scorer of the gold medal match scoring 65 runs off 43 balls and kept the Indian hopes alive till her last ball on the crease.
McGrath had a breakthrough campaign in her T20 international career. In the absence of star all-rounder Ellyse Perry, she stepped up and donned the role perfectly for the Women in Yellow. Tahlia and Sophie Devine were the only ones who made it to the Top 10 charts of runs and wickets from this tournament.
Tahlia McGrath taking necessary precautions to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus
In their third fixture against Pakistan Women, the 26-year-old first contributed 78 runs with the bat and then went on to bag the dismissals of three opponent batters. The Adelaide all-rounder was Australia’s joint-leading wicket-taker from this competition having eight wickets under her helm and also fetched 128 runs from just four innings.
She tested positive for Covid-19 right before the gold medal battle but was still permitted to play with strict social-distancing precautions.
Lower Middle Order: Hayley Jensen, Sneh Rana
Jensen turned out to be the most economical gun among the bowlers who bowled more than 16 overs in this competition. The pace-bowling Christchurch all-rounder wrapped up seven dismissals and remained economical throughout the campaign by giving away only 5.36 runs per over.
Her highlights performance of the CWG 2022 came during the bronze medal where registered individual bowling figures of 3/24 and played a pivotal role in restricting the hosts to 110 in the first innings.
Rana was the only spinner to make it to the list of the Top 5 highest wicket-takers of the mega event. The 28-year-old was not included in the playing XI for the first fixture but got featured in the very next game as part of the consequences of their defeat.
She proved that leaving out her was a mistake by the Indian management and achieved the redemption arc by picking seven wickets from four appearances.
Bowlers: Jess Jonassen, Renuka Singh Thakur, Megan Schutt
The Aussie left-arm spinner was the strike spin-wizard for the Southern Stars who went on to fetch the gold medal honour. She had a memorable start to the historic event after claiming 4-fer in the first innings of the opening day against India. When Australia faced India again, Jonassen dismissed the last Indian batter Yastika Bhatia to ensure their golden triumph.
The rise of Renuka Singh Thakur is one of the biggest takeaways for the Indian team from this competition as she emerged as the strike pace-bowling option of the Women in Blue.
The Himachal Express mapping great success
She topped the wicket-taking charts after bagging 11 wickets with an astonishing average of just 9.45. Even in the final fixture, Thakur dismissed the big fish Alyssa Healy to give India an ideal start.
The 29-year-old fast bowler was the first one to initiate a comeback out of nowhere in the Grand Finale. Schutt broke the 96-run partnership for the third wicket by dismissing Jemimah Rodrigues in the 15th over of the chase.
She registered the bowling figures of 3 for 20 in the semifinal tie against arch-rivals New Zealand which stood as her best individual outing from the CWG campaign.