The nature of T20s is such that the batters are always looking for runs from ball 1, and there won’t be a single delivery where you can relax as a bowler. It is because the batter will look to pounce on any inch that is provided to him/her. This is why a dot ball is as important as a wicket in this format, and there is a common saying “dot balls in T20 cricket are like Goldust.”
It not only makes the batter manufacture shots that they normally don’t play but also plays a key in building pressure on the opposition as a whole. A dot ball or string of dot balls eliminates all the momentum that a batting side has.
Here we’ll see who are all the top 10 bowlers from the inaugural season of WPL to have bowled the most number of dot deliveries.
Most Dot Balls by a Bowler in WPL
| Player | Innings | Dot Balls Bowled |
|---|---|---|
| Marizanne Kapp (DC) | 24 | 303 |
| Shikha Pandey (DC) | 27 | 283 |
| Sophie Ecclestone (UPW) | 25 | 266 |
| Shabnim Ismail (MI) | 20 | 264 |
| Natalie Sciver-Brunt (MI) | 29 | 254 |
| Hayley Matthews (MI) | 29 | 242 |
| Amelia Kerr (MI) | 29 | 233 |
| Renuka Singh (RCB) | 23 | 202 |
| Jess Jonassen (DC) | 24 | 202 |
| Tanuja Kanwar (GG) | 25 | 195 |
(You can check out other WPL stats here.)
Key Insights
Marizanne Kapp of DC holds the record for bowling the most number of dot balls in the inaugural season. Out of the 36 overs (216 legal deliveries), 121 balls Kapp bowled were dots, and she maintained an economy of 5.72 throughout the campaign.
Along with Kapp, only Issy Wong of MI managed to bowl 100 or more dots in the opening season. She had bowled 195 balls, and out of these, a whopping 101 were dots.
5 of MI’s bowling mainstays all feature in this top 10 list of the most dot deliveries to go along with the truckload of wickets they got. This is one of the reasons why MI was able to dominate the 2023 season, clinching the title.
Rajeshwari Gayakwad’s economy rate was 8.20 in the previous edition, despite bowling 70 dots out of the 30 overs she sent out. She gave away 246 runs, and the only other player on this list to give more runs is Jess Jonassen (269).
Hayley Matthews holds the record for bowling the most number of dots in a single game of the WPL last season. In a game against DC, the all-rounder from the West Indies bowled as many as 19 dots, ending with figures of 3/5 in 4 overs.
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