Nat Sciver-Brunt: England Women's Greatest Allrounder and Vice-Captain
Nat Sciver-Brunt's career as England's premier women's cricket allrounder — her 148 not out in the 2017 World Cup final, her unusual batting grip, her medium-fast bowling, and her key role in England's white-ball dominance.
Nat Sciver-Brunt (previously Nat Sciver before her marriage to Katherine Brunt) is England's most complete women's cricket allrounder. She bats right-handed with an unusual two-handed grip that generates significant power without standard technique, bowls right-arm medium-fast at around 100 km/h, and fields athletically in any position. She has been ICC Women's Allrounder of the Year, scored a century in a World Cup final, and is generally considered the most difficult women's cricketer to leave out of any England side.
The 2017 World Cup Final: 148 not out
England's 2017 Women's World Cup final victory over India at Lord's was built on Sciver-Brunt's 148 not out from 129 balls. With England's top order collapsing, she came in and rebuilt the innings with enormous skill, reaching her century in 106 balls and continuing to accelerate as the innings progressed. The innings was played with the poise and technical control of a match-winner who had rehearsed this kind of rescue act many times — which she had, throughout her county and international career. England scored 228 and won by nine runs. The innings remains the greatest batting performance in a Women's World Cup final.
Batting Technique: The Unusual Grip
Sciver-Brunt's batting is technically unusual in one specific dimension: her bottom hand grip rotates further around the handle than is typical, creating a more closed-face position that generates significant pull and on-side power but requires careful adjustment for deliveries outside off stump. Critics have occasionally suggested this grip makes her vulnerable to outswing bowling — and her dismissal mode in international cricket does show a higher-than-typical rate of edged catches in the slip cordon. But the power it generates through the leg side and in the pull shot makes her one of the most difficult women's batters to contain once she is set.
Frequently asked questions
How have Nat Sciver-Brunt and Katherine Brunt as a married couple managed their careers as England teammates, and is there any precedent for married couples as international cricket teammates?
Nat Sciver-Brunt and Katherine Brunt married in 2022, becoming one of the highest-profile married couples in cricket and the first married couple to play as England teammates in the professional era of women's cricket. The management of their careers as teammates is both simpler and more complex than it might appear. Simpler because both are professional cricketers with long-established team roles: Nat bats and bowls medium-fast as an allrounder; Katherine is a specialist fast bowler. Their roles don't compete; they complement each other naturally in a bowling attack and batting lineup. The team dynamics question — whether their marriage creates subgroups or tension within the team environment — is one that England's management has addressed by treating them as individual players who happen to be married rather than as a unit that creates special circumstances. More complex because of the media attention. Every England women's selection decision involving one of them is potentially viewed through the marriage lens. If Katherine is not selected for a match, journalists ask whether her age (she is older than Nat) or form is the reason. If both play and England wins, the couple's contribution is foregrounded. England's management has been careful to discuss both players on their individual merits. Historical precedents for married couples in international cricket are rare. The most comparable case is probably Steve Waugh and his wife, who was not a cricketer. Among cricketers who have been in relationships with colleagues: in women's cricket, teammates in relationships are not uncommon in the current era, reflecting broader social changes. As the first publicly married couple playing for the same England team at international level, Sciver-Brunt and Brunt have handled the attention with considerable maturity.