ESPNcricinfo Awards Women's ODI batting winner: The Athapaththu annihilation

It's unlikely that Charles Dickens foreshadowing Chamari Athapaththu's 2023 was on anyone's bingo card, but here we are: it truly was the best of times and the worst of times. In September the Sri Lanka captain was snubbed in the WBBL overseas draft, and then in December she went unsold in the WPL auction. But before and after those dates she laid waste to all before her.

No instance was more devastating than her 80-ball onslaught to seal a first-ever bilateral series win over New Zealand. Just a week prior she had counterattacked in sublime fashion, blitzing an unbeaten 108 to make light work of a tricky rain-affected chase in the first ODI, but that would turn out to be only an appetiser.

At the same venue, and with rain once more having played its part, Sri Lanka were again in trouble having lost two early wickets in pursuit of a DLS-adjusted target of 196 in 29 overs. This meant Athapaththu had had a fairly subdued start by her standards, playing out seven dots in her opening ten deliveries. Sri Lanka themselves would limp to 7 for 2 at the end of the fifth. That was the calm; the storm, as it turned out, was around the corner.

Of the next 21 overs in the chase, only three saw no boundaries. Of the 27 times the ball crossed the ropes, Athapaththu was responsible for 22. Her nine sixes were all the sixes Sri Lanka scored.

Three runs off her first ten balls would be followed by 50 off her next 20. With nary a false shot in play, she ended up pummelling her opponents into submission and finished unbeaten on 140 off just 80 deliveries, accounting for a whopping 71% of the runs in the chase.

Sophie Devine, Lea Tahuhu, Eden Carson and Molly Penfold bowled to Athapaththu in consecutive overs from the sixth to the ninth. She carted each of them for sixes. When Amelia Kerr and Fran Jonas were introduced a couple of overs later, they received the same treatment. In the V, square of the wicket… nowhere was safe. The message was clear: no matter who you bowl, it won't change a thing. Aththapathu was inevitable.

69.16 Athapathuthu's ODI average for 2023, nearly double her average in 2022 (35.83).

175 Her strike rate in this ODI. The next closest strike rate in the game was Sophie Devine's 79.16.

Nat Sciver-Brunt
129 vs Australia, third ODI, Taunton
England may have lost the Ashes on points, but they handed back-to-back white-ball series defeats to double World champions Australia - that team's first such losses since 2013 - to end the tour on a historic note. Much of that was down to Sciver-Brunt, who struck consecutive hundreds in the final two ODIs, including a series-clinching 129 off 149 in the decider.