Bat, nap, bowl and Love Island
A world record with the bat, a quick nap, career-best bowling figures and all rinsed down with a dose of reality TV.
By any teenager’s standards, it’s pretty much the perfect day.
At just 17, White Ferns all-rounder Amelia Kerr has, for a couple of years, been tagged as a potential superstar and yesterday she proved the hype is real with a recordbreaking score of 232 not out in the one-day international against Ireland in Dublin. New Zealand won by 307 runs to clinch the series
3-0. She scored more than half of New Zealand’s total of 440-3.
She became the youngest cricketer, male or female, to score a double-century in international cricket.
The record was previously held by Javed Miandad in tests when he scored a double hundred at 19 years and 140 days.
Opening the innings, Kerr blasted 31 fours and two sixes in her 145-ball knock to better Australian Belinda Clark’s 229 not out set in
1997.
And Kerr’s breakout day was not done there – even though she did need a quick nap before a career-best effort with the ball.
‘‘After my innings, I had a little nap,’’ Kerr said of her 10-minute sleep on the physio table during the lunch break.
Somehow, amongst all the excitement, Kerr managed to fall into a deep sleep.
A quick nap was understandable after Kerr carried her bat through the entire 50 overs of the White Ferns’ innings.
The nap did the trick as the leg-spinner claimed 5-17 from seven overs to help her side to a huge win.
So surely an early night was on the cards following the demanding but rewarding day? Not when there is reality TV to catch up on.
‘‘I will sleep well, I have to stay up until 10 o’clock to finish Love Island but then we’ll be in bed,’’ Kerr said.
When she returned to the middle for the second innings, Kerr was expecting White Ferns captain Suzie Bates to go easy on her.
‘‘I didn’t think I was actually going to bowl today. I thought Suzie was just going to let me have a rest in the field standing at slip all day,’’ she said.
But Kerr soon became thankful for the opportunity as she spun her way to careerbest figures.
‘‘The pitch was turning, which obviously helps me,’’ she said.