Amelia Kerr is amongst the finest all-rounders in international women's cricket. The New Zealand star played a critical part in her country's title-winning run at the 2024 T20 World Cup. Kerr has also been an understated part of the Mumbai Indians setup in the Womens Premier League (WPL) without really hogging the limelight like the other foreign stars in the Mumbai squad.
On Friday (January 9), Kerr found herself with an unwanted milestone. She took 11 balls to score her first run, which is the slowest for any opening batter in the history of the WPL. Overall, it was the second slowest for any player in the league, behind Grace Harris' 15 balls back in the 2024 season.
Kerr was all at sea against RCB's WPL debutant Lauren Bell who got it on a string with the new ball. England's tall pacer bowled 11 deliveries at Kerr of which the New Zealander played and missed at eight of them. There was extravagant inward movement on offer and the extra bounce also undid Kerr who seemed very rusty out there.
Not surprisingly, Bell eventually dismissed Kerr whose attempt to break the shackles ended in disaster. The White Ferns batter stepped down the track and wanted to hit Bell for a boundary or six, but only managed to miscue it straight up in the air. The ball only want as far as cover where Arundhati Reddy took a safe catch.
Fortunately for MI, they managed to strike three boundaries off the final over of the Powerplay which went for 13 runs. However, the six-over score of 34-1 was surely a phase won by Royal Challengers Bengaluru who opted to bowl at the toss.