Amelia Kerr is proving that she is here to stay
Bruce Alexander Grenfell Murray was a school headmaster from Wellington, New Zealand, in the 1970s. Besides being a school headmaster, Murray was also into professional sports; he even went on to represent his country in international cricket.
But his international records are nothing close to stellar. As an opening batsman, he scored 598 runs from 13 Test matches, a rather mediocre record as per international standards. However, the reason his name is well-known today is because in the early 1970s, he openly criticized professional cricket.
He stated that professional cricket made players more self-centered and less of team-men. He even went on to say that the notion of professional sports is an oxymoron, as it wasn't sporting at all. It hardened players big time and made them selfish and narrow-minded in their views of the world.
There is a reason why Mr. Murray is relevant to this article; he is the grandfather of Amelia Kerr. It is ironical that the man who questioned the existence of professional cricket itself five decades ago, has now seen his own granddaughter shoot to fame, in her teenage years, courtesy of professional cricket.
Kerr made her name in junior level cricket as a talented leg-spinner, and carried her form and skills into the international arena. In her initial few matches against Pakistan and Australia, she exhibited the consistent ability to choke opposition lineups with her flighted, deceptive leg spin.
At the tender age of 17, she was already showing the potential to be the spinning main-stay of the New Zealand cricket team in the years to come. However, her exceptionally consistent leg-spin is not the only weapon in her armory.
Suzie Bates, the New Zealand skipper, spotted something special in the willow-wielding ability of this teenager - something that the world was oblivious to until then.
One fine morning in Dublin, upon winning the toss against Ireland, Bates sent her youngest teammate out to open the innings. As they say, great are those who rise to the occasion. Kerr, possessing the heart of a giant in the body of a 17-year-old kid, was no different.
She carried her bat throughout the innings and in the process, recorded only the second ever double century in women's cricket history. On that day, the 13th of June 2018, Kerr also recorded the highest score in international women's cricket (beating the previous best of 229* by Belinda Clarke), as she cruised to 232* off just 145 deliveries.
The innings was studded with 31 boundaries and a couple of massive sixes. The boundary count just emphasizes the serenity and maturity with which this kid destroyed the opposition bowlers. She never slogged at any point in the innings, she never lost her shape; instead, just like the experts emphasize, she timed the ball to perfection.
With the emergence of more and more prodigious talent in cricket and with the ever-increasing popularity of the game, there is a possibility that even this unprecedented batting record by Kerr will be superseded in the future.
But how many times in the future will cricket fans see a double centurion teenager coming back after her long innings and picking up 5 wickets? Kerr did just that.
After her sublime 232* off 145 deliveries, she deceived the Irish batting lineup with her superbly controlled leg-spinners and googlies, to pick up 5 wickets for 17 from her 7 overs.
This performance is likely to remain the most successful all-round performance in international cricket, for years to come (if not decades). In fact, it will not be surprising if this all-round record by Kerr is looked at in the future with similar reverence as the much celebrated 189* of Sir Viv Richards at Manchester in 1984.
Since this magnum opus of a performance in June 2018, Kerr has progressed by leaps and bounds in her international career. Today she stands out as a regular feature in the New Zealand ODI squad - a solid middle-order batsman and a consistent leg spinner, who finishes her full quota of 10 overs in most of the matches.
Kerr has almost a couple of decades of cricket left in her; she has definitely shown that she is a special talent who is here to stay for the long haul. Will her name go on to be pronounced alongside the likes of Ellyse Perry, Peggy Antonio, Shantha Rangaswamy, Mithali Raj and other legends of women's cricket? Time will tell, but the signs are all in place.