Upstox Greatest Players: New Zealand run-machine Debbie Hockley

In the ICC’s Upstox Greatest Players series, we look at some of the best performers in the history of the tournament.

No batter has scored more at Women’s World Cups than New Zealand One Day International run-machine Deborah Ann Hockley.

Hockley was a reliable and consistent run-getter in ODIs, setting records along the way, being the first woman to play 100 international matches and the first to reach 4000 runs in the format.

The right-hander is one of the game’s great run scorers and a stalwart of New Zealand cricket, becoming the first woman elected as the country’s cricket president back in 2016.

A member of the ICC Hall of Fame, Debbie Hockley also produced outstanding results in the Test game, averaging an impressive 52.04 across 19 Tests, scoring four hundreds and seven half-centuries.

WORLD CUP RECORD

Hockley’s tally of 1501 runs at Women’s World Cups is the most by a single batter in history, with the New Zealander one of just five women to have reached four figures at ICC tournaments.

Her 1501 runs came from 43 innings at an average of 42.88, with two centuries and 10 half-centuries.

And she ended her World Cup career in fitting fashion, scoring an anchoring knock in a New Zealand total of 184 that proved enough for them to win the World Cup Final against Australia in 2000, Hockley’s last ODI of her career.

HOCKLEY IN HER OWN WORDS

“Sometimes you forget to look back. I got the opportunity to play for New Zealand when I was very young and just managed to hang in there until that very last match I played when we won the World Cup. After five World Cups of trying and two previous losing finals, it was third time lucky. As it happened it was my final game so what better way to go out.

“I really love the game and I love playing in the team environment, that’s what allowed me to keep going for such a long period of time. When I did finish I knew it was the right time, but I had an amazing career and lots of opportunities.

“My first World Cup I think I was 19, the 1982 World Cup in New Zealand. And I was 16 when I went on my first tour of Australia, and I managed to play my first Test match. And it was probably then when I realised how much cricket meant to me, when I was batting to save the match.”

STAND-OUT PERFORMANCE

Hockley played in five World Cups in total, but comfortably her best tournament was in India in 1997, where she racked up 456 runs in seven innings at an average of 76.

Hockley’s heroics were almost enough to help her side win the tournament, with her 79 at the top of the order the final’s highest score. But India chased down their target to deny Hockley the trophy that her personal contribution perhaps merited.