Deandra Dottin: Feared and fearless

Regarded as one of the most feared and fearless cricketers in the world, Deandra Dottin will go down in the history books as the first woman to score a T20 International century and also the fastest to that century in only 38 balls versus South Africa in 2010.

Since then, she has added a second century to the tally column, also becoming the first women to achieve such a feat.

Despite her diminutive stature, Deandra packs a punch with both bat and ball. Her counterparts from across the globe count her as one of the most destructive players they have ever had to play against.

With Deandra an innings can take a few deliveries to get going or it can be “bang bang” from the very first delivery.

The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies in 2018 showed how versatile and destructive can be. In her team’s low scoring match against Bangladesh with their backs seemingly up against the wall, captain Stafanie Taylor entrusted the bowling to Deandra, and she certainly did not let her captain nor her team down.

Like a dart to a bullseye, Deandra’s bowling was accurate in line and length. She had the Guyana crowd jumping and dancing out of their seats, as wickets started tumbling. At the end of the match, Deandra finished with figures of 5-5, her first five wicket haul in T20 Internationals.

2019 was a tough year for Deandra as she had reconstructive surgery to her shoulder which caused her to miss international cricket for eight months.

The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia in early 2020, was her return to international cricket, and while she is going to take some time to “get her feet wet again”, Deandra is continuing to work with her coaches to keep her physical conditioning to an optimum level.

No doubt Deandra is raring and waiting to get back to full strength and destruction on the 22 yards. (CWI)