Lisa Sthalekar

Lisa Carprini Sthalekar (born 13 August 1979, Pune, Maharashtra, India) is a female cricketer who plays for Australia, and captains New South Wales. One of the key players in the team, she is a right-handed all rounder who bowls off spin, and was rated as the leading all rounder in the world when rankings were introduced. She is the first woman to score 1,000 runs and take 100 wickets in ODIs.

Sthalekar made her debut in the Women's National Cricket League (WNCL) late in 1997–98 as a specialist bowler, but had little success, totalling 1/120 in her maiden campaign. She improved her performance over the next two seasons, taking 8 and 15 wickets respectively. In three years, she scored only 169 runs with a best score of 33. In 2000–01 Sthalekar took 11 wickets and scored 112 runs in the WNCL and was called into the Australian team for the first time. Playing as a bowler, she made her One Day International (ODI) debut against England and ended the tour of the British Isles with five wickets from as many matches.

In 2001–02, Sthalekar developed into a frontline batsman. She made her first half-century, compiling four in all for the season. She totalled 347 runs, more than her four previous seasons combined, and took 11 wickets as New South Wales won their sixth consecutive WNCL with a clean sweep. Sthalekar struggled with the ball in the next two international seasons, taking only eight wickets in 12 matches, but she did break through with the bat at...
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