A Notch Above The Rest: Claire Taylor
Its just plain luck for England and for the world of women’s cricket that Claire http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 did not decide to pursue a career in hockey instead, a sport which she is also fond of. Had that been the case, women’s cricket would have been robbed of one of its most talented players.
The England cricket team today is a powerhouse of talent. It has a huge range of successful results to show. It is led by a brilliant captain in Charlotte Edwards and an excellent player in Claire Taylor. In fact, had it not been for the experience of Edwards, Taylor would have been a definite captain.
Claire made her début for England in July 1999 against Australia in a one day international. She was made to understand the pressures of international cricket in her very first match, where Australia comprehensively won by eight wickets with as many as 25 overs to spare. The English women just could not get through the Aussie bowling line-up and ended up scoring just 102 runs. Claire scored just one run in 14 deliveries before she was caught out.
She went on to play her first Test a year later at Shenley against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in July 1999. The match ended in a draw and Claire scored 11 and 0 in the two innings.
Claire has represented the England women’s team in 15 Tests and 117 ODIs. In Tests she has scored over 1000 runs at an average of more than 40. She has a highest score of 117 along with four hundreds and two fifties. In ODI cricket, she has scored almost 4000 runs at an average of 40. Her ODI highest stands at an unbeaten 156. She has eight 100s and twenty 50s to her name in this format.
While scoring her seventh century in February 2008, Taylor became the joint highest century maker in women’s ODIs.
In the same year in September she also completed 100 ODIs becoming only the 13th player to reach that milestone.
At the annual ICC Awards in 2009 at Johannesburg, Taylor was named the Women’s Cricketer of the Year. This award was conferred for her staggering performance that year. In the period that was considered for this award, between August 2008 and August 2009, Taylor featured in 18 ODIs and scored 565 runs at an average of 70.62. She also played in six T20 internationals and scored 230 runs, and got out only twice.
The year 2009 was great for England cricket in general - and Claire Taylor in particular. The England team had won both the World Cup and the T20 Championship, and Claire had been declared as the player of the tournament in both. Such had been her domination in women's cricket.
Claire was also named as the Wisden Cricketer of the year in 2009. In doing so she became the first woman in the 120-year history of Wisden to be given this honour.
While announcing her name Scyld http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in their own land and her successes in the World Cup that followed, there could be hardly any doubt in making that announcement.
He added: "It would be a sin of omission, an act of prejudice, to exclude her from the accolade."
Her journey to glory continued in 2010 as she was awarded the MBE in February 2010 at the Windsor Castle. On receiving her award Claire said that it was a privilege to be awarded the MBE by the Queen.
She is also the top ranked women’s cricketer in the world by the ICC's rankings.
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