Claire Taylor

Claire Taylor

MBE

Personal information
Full name	Samantha Claire Taylor
Born	(1975-09-25) 25 September 1975 (age 48) Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England
Batting	Right-handed
Role	Batter, occasional wicket-keeper
International information
National side	England (1998–2011)
Test debut (cap 127)	15 July 1999 v India
Last Test	10 July 2009 v Australia
ODI debut (cap 78)	19 July 1998 v Australia
Last ODI	7 July 2011 v Australia
ODI shirt no.	6
T20I debut (cap 11)	5 August 2004 v New Zealand
Last T20I	27 June 2011 v Australia
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1993–1999	Thames Valley
2000–2011	Berkshire
2002/03–2004/05	Canterbury
Career statistics
Competition WTest WODI T20I WLA Matches 15 126 27 298 Runs scored 1,030 4,101 615 10,369 Batting average 41.20 40.20 27.95 43.02 100s/50s 4/2 8/23 0/3 17/66 Top score 177 156* 76* 156* Balls bowled – – – 578 Wickets – – – 3/26 Bowling average – – – 23.27 5 wickets in innings – – – 0 10 wickets in match – – – 0 Best bowling – – – 3/26 Catches/stumpings 18/0 41/5 12/2 114/57
Source: CricketArchive, 14 March 2021

Samantha Claire Taylor MBE (born 25 September 1975) is a former cricketer who represented England more than 150 times between 1998 and 2011. A top order batter,^{[n 1]} Taylor was the first woman to be named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. Along with Charlotte Edwards, she was the mainstay of England's batting during the first decade of the 21st century, and played a key role in the team's two world titles in 2009.

Taylor did not play cricket until the age of 13, but four years later made her county debut. Initially considered a wicket-keeper with limited batting ability, Taylor struggled to break into the England team. She made her international debut in 1998, and within two years was a regular in the team. After an unsuccessful World Cup in 2000, Taylor left her job to become a full-time cricketer. Over the subsequent five years, she developed into one of the leading batsmen in women's cricket, but after another failure in the 2005 World Cup she resumed her career alongside cricket.

Despite her struggles at the World Cup, Taylor continued to improve as a batsman, and in 2006, she scored 156 not out, the highest individual total in an ODI at Lord's Cricket Ground. Her batting successes resulted in her being short-listed for the ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year in 2007 and 2008, and she won the award in 2009. After being the leading run-scorer in the 2009 World Cup, and player of the tournament in the World Twenty20 later that year, she was less consistent from 2010, though she performed well in the pair of quadrangular tournaments played in England during her final summer of cricket, and completed her career with batting averages in excess of 40 in both Test and ODI cricket. In July 2018, she was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.^[1]

Cite error: There are <ref group=n> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=n}} template (see the help page).