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Amelia Kerr's historic White Ferns performance inspiring Black Caps

June 14, 2018

Ish Sodhi says the 17-year-old all-rounder is setting the bar for everyone else.

It's one thing being praised for your batting by a former Black Cap but it's even better when that person is your grandad as well. 

Amelia Kerr's historic ODI performance against Ireland this morning made grandad and former leg-spinner Bruce Murray speechless.

"You've got to pinch yourself a wee bit...she's done well," he said.  

"We're very pleased for her mostly because she's such a nice girl - that's grandparent speak."

As someone who's seen her progress through the ranks, there was always a sneaking suspicion something special was going to happen. 

"When I heard she was going to open in this particular game I thought, 'oh, that could be interesting'."

It turns out the 17-year-old's performance even caught the eye of New Zealand's other premier leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, who says he now has to play catch up.  

"I'm going to have to try and get to 50 first in the ODI format," he said.

It's definitely inspiring for me as well, to move my game forward and be someone that can contribute in so many ways to a team is really important, and that's what Amelia's doing, and I guess setting the bar for the rest of us." 

Kerr finished on 232 not out against Ireland in Dublin, scoring more than half of her team's total of 440-3.

Her innings, consisting of of 31 fours and two sixes off 145 deliveries, was enough to surpass Belinda Clark's 229 not-out scored back in 1997 to become to highest women's ODI score in history.

In doing so, she also became the youngest cricketer to score a double-century in international cricket - a record previously held by former Pakistani great Javed Miandad in when he scored a double hundred at 19 years and 140 days in a Test against New Zealand in 1976.

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