Nat Sciver-Brunt Quick Info | |
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Height | 5 ft 9 in |
Weight | 67 kg |
Date of Birth | August 20, 1992 |
Zodiac Sign | Leo |
Spouse | Katherine Sciver-Brunt |
Nat Sciver-Brunt is an English professional cricketer who has represented her country in all 3 formats of the sport (Tests, ODIs, and T20Is) and is widely regarded as one of the best all-rounders of her era. She played a starring role in England’s triumph at the 2017 ICC (International Cricket Council) Women’s Cricket World Cup, the 4th time that England had lifted the title. She was the 6th-highest run-getter in the tournament with 369 runs to her name in 9 matches and was ranked 5th in terms of the number of catches taken (6). She was also the English team’s 4th-highest wicket-taker (7 wickets) in the tournament and was named the 12th player in the ‘Team of the Tournament’ announced by the ICC. In the English domestic circuit, Nat has played for Surrey (2010-Present) and Northern Diamonds (2020-2022) across all formats. In franchise-based T20 cricket, she has turned out for the Melbourne Stars (2015-16-2016-17, 2020-21) and the Perth Scorchers (2017-18, 2019-20) in the WBBL (Women’s Big Bash League); the Surrey Stars (2016-2019) in the WCSL (Women’s Cricket Super League); the Supernovas (2019) in the Women’s T20 Challenge; and the Mumbai Indians (2023) in the WPL (Women’s Premier League). Nat has also played for the Trent Rockets (2021-Present) in The Hundred, a professional franchise 100-ball cricket tournament that was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as a new format of cricket that was played for the first time in July and August 2021.
Born Name
Natalie Ruth Sciver
Nick Name
Nat
Sun Sign
Leo
Born Place
Tokyo, Kantō, Honshu, Japan
Residence
Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom
Nationality
Education
Nat had attended Epsom College, a co-educational independent school in Epsom Downs, Surrey, England. She played cricket there, between 2007 and 2011. She later studied sports and exercise science at Loughborough University, a public research university in Loughborough.
Occupation
Professional Cricketer
Family
- Father – Richard Sciver (Business Executive)
- Mother – Julia Longbottom (Diplomat, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Japan since March 2021)
- Siblings – Zoe Sciver (Younger Sister). She also has a brother.
Batting
Right-Handed
Bowling
Right-Arm Medium
Role
All-Rounder
Jersey Number
- 39 – Test Match, One Day International (ODI), T20 International (T20I), Melbourne Stars (WBBL)
- 10 – Surrey Stars (WCSL), Trent Rockets (The Hundred)
Build
Athletic
Height
5 ft 9 in or 175 cm
Weight
67 kg or 147.5 lbs
Girlfriend / Spouse
Nat has dated –
- Katherine Sciver-Brunt (2019-Present) – Nat announced her engagement to fellow English professional cricketer and fellow 2017 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup winner Katherine Brunt in October 2019. They were set to get married in September 2020 but the wedding ceremony was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The couple eventually got married in May 2022 and both of them changed their last name to Sciver-Brunt. In January 2023, they announced that they would both go by that last name in all cricket-related records.
Race / Ethnicity
White
She is of British descent.
Hair Color
Dark Brown
Eye Color
Blue
Sexual Orientation
Lesbian
Distinctive Features
- Toned physique
- Affable smile
- Radiant face
- Has a mole near her chin
Brand Endorsements
She has been sponsored by Kookaburra Sport, an Australian company specializing in Australian rules football, cricket, and field hockey equipment.
Nat Sciver-Brunt Facts
- Nat was born in Tokyo as her mother, a diplomat, was stationed in Japan at that time. Due to the nature of her mother’s job, Nat also spent parts of her childhood in Poland as well as the Netherlands.
- She holds the record of being the first English cricketer, male or female, to record a hat-trick (the feat of dismissing 3 batters in 3 successive legal deliveries) in a T20I match. She achieved the feat in October 2013 in a match against New Zealand, becoming just the 4th female cricketer to record a hat-trick in a T20I match.
- At the 2014 edition of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, the 4th edition of the tournament, Nat was the 2nd highest wicket-taker (10 wickets in 6 matches, at a scarcely believable average of 9.60 runs per wicket). She was England’s best bowler in the team’s opening group-stage match against the West Indies (3/18 in 3 overs) as well as the final against arch-rivals Australia (2/12 in 2 overs).
- Unfortunately, England lost both those matches – by 9 runs and 6 wickets, respectively – the team’s only defeats in the tournament. England’s defeat to Australia in the final was a repeat of the previous (2012) edition of the tournament. This was England’s 3rd appearance in the final of the tournament – after the triumph in the inaugural edition (2009) and a runner-up finish in 2012.
- In the semi-final of the next (2016) edition of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, against Australia, Nat was England’s best bowler (2/22 in 3 overs). The result was the same though – a defeat, albeit by a narrow 5-run margin.
- The ‘Natmeg’, a cricket shot in which the batter hits the ball through his/her legs, is named after her. The term is a play on her first name and the soccer term ‘nutmeg’ that refers to a player pushing the ball between an opponent’s legs.
- In England’s 2nd group stage game of the 2017 edition of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, against Pakistan, Nat scored her maiden ODI century in the WODI format – 137 runs off just 92 balls. Her performance, which resulted in a ‘Player of the Match’ award, helped England pile up 377 runs, the team’s highest total in the tournament’s history and their second-highest total in the WODI format.
- During that match, she was also involved in a 3rd wicket partnership of 213 runs with Heather Knight. It was the then-highest 3rd wicket stand in the history of the tournament. As of February 2023, it was still the joint-highest 3rd wicket partnership for England in the WODI format.
- In England’s 6th group-stage game of the tournament, against New Zealand, Nat scored another century – 129 runs off 111 balls. She won the ‘Player of the Match’ award again as England won by 75 runs and qualified for the semi-final stage. This knock of 129 runs remained, as of February 2023, the highest score by any player batting at the number 5 position in a WODI match.
- In this match, Nat and Tammy Beaumont were involved in a partnership of 170 runs, the then-highest 4th-wicket stand in the history of the tournament. As of February 2023, it was still the 2nd highest 4th wicket partnership for England in the WODI format.
- In England’s 7th (and last) group-stage game of the tournament, against the West Indies, she picked up 3 wickets for just 3 runs in 4 overs as England went on to win the match by 92 runs and finish the group stage in the number 1 position – 12 points (6 wins and 1 loss). In the final of the 2017 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, against India (the only team that had defeated England in the tournament – in the team’s opening match of the group stage, by 35 runs), Nat top scored for her team (51 runs off 68 balls) in a tense 9-run win that gave England its 4th ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup title.
- For her pivotal role in helping England win this title, she was named one of the 5 ‘Wisden Cricketers of the Year’ in 2018. The honor is given annually by the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack (widely regarded as the ‘Bible of Cricket’), a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom, to players who made the biggest impact on the previous English cricket season.
- In England’s 3rd group stage match of the 2018 edition of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, against South Africa, Nat bowled one of the most frugal spells in WT20I history – picking up 3 wickets at the cost of a meager 4 runs in her quota of 4 overs. South Africa was dismissed for a paltry total of 85 runs as England went on to win the match by 7 wickets.
- Nat was named the ‘Player of the Match’ for her spectacular bowling effort. The win proved decisive at the end of the group stage matches as England (5 points) edged out South Africa (4 points) to claim the 2nd position in the group and qualify for the semi-final stage while South Africa was eliminated. England eventually reached the final of the tournament where their nemesis, Australia, hammered them by 8 wickets.
- At the 2020 edition of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, she was the 3rd highest run-getter with 202 runs to her name in just 4 innings. In England’s 2nd match of the group stage, against minnows Thailand, Nat scored 59 runs not out and was involved in an unbroken 169-run partnership for the 3rd wicket with Heather Knight. As of February 2023, this was the highest partnership for England for the 3rd (or any other) wicket in a WT20I match.
- She was England’s top run-scorer in the team’s first and last group-stage matches of that tournament – against South Africa (50 runs) and the West Indies (57 runs), respectively – winning the ‘Player of the Match’ award in the latter. Her red-hot form with the bat met an unfortunate end in the semi-final as their opponents, India, advanced to the final after incessant rain meant that no play was possible. This was because India had finished their group in the top position while England had stood 2nd in theirs. For her performances, Nat was included in the ICC‘s ‘Team of the Tournament’.
- In England’s opening group stage game of the 2022 edition of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, against Australia, she scored a magnificent century – 109 runs not out off 85 balls – but Australia managed to eke out a 12-run win. In the team’s 5th match of the group stage, against New Zealand, Nat played a heroic ‘Player of the Match’ winning knock (61 runs off 108 balls). This one helped England scrape through to a narrow 1-wicket win and helped revitalize the English campaign as the team had lost 3 of its first 4 matches in the tournament.
- In the final of the tournament, against Australia, she responded to a mammoth target of 357 runs with a career-best performance – 148 runs not out in 121 balls. However, it was not nearly enough as the English response ended in the 44th over, 71 runs behind Australia’s total. Nat finished as the 3rd highest run-getter in the tournament – 436 runs in 8 innings at a stellar average of 72.66 runs per inning – and was included in the ICC‘s ‘Team of the Tournament’.
- Her aforementioned knock of 148 runs not out was the 2nd-highest score, as of February 2023, at the number 4 position in a WODI match. The highest such score was Harmanpreet Kaur‘s iconic knock of 171 runs not out that had famously knocked Australia out in the semi-final of the 2017 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup.
- Nat captained the English squad at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. It was the first occasion where women’s cricket was included in the Commonwealth Games and just the 2nd time that cricket was played at the Commonwealth Games – a men’s tournament had previously been featured at the 1998 edition held in Kuala Lumpur.
- She top-scored for England (41 runs) in the semi-final stage of the tournament but could not prevent a narrow 4-run defeat to India. In the ‘Bronze’ medal match, she was England’s best performer with both bat (27 runs) and ball (1/8 in 1 over) in an otherwise limp performance which saw New Zealand win by 8 wickets with a massive 8.1 overs to spare.
- In February 2023, in the auction for the upcoming inaugural edition of the WPL (Women’s Premier League), Nat was acquired by the Mumbai Indians for INR 3.2 crores. She was the joint most expensive overseas player in the auction – tied with Ashleigh Gardner, acquired by the Gujarat Giants. Overall, only Smriti Mandhana – acquired by Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 3.4 crores – was ahead of her and Ashleigh.
- At the 2023 edition of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, she was England’s top run-scorer in the team’s first, third, and fourth (last) group-stage matches of the tournament – against the West Indies (40 runs not out), India (50 runs) and Pakistan (81 runs not out), respectively – winning the ‘Player of the Match’ award in all of those matches.
- In the last of those matches, against Pakistan, her knock helped England record the highest team total (213/5) in the tournament’s history as well as the highest margin (114 runs) of victory (by runs) in the tournament’s history. Nat was England’s top run-scorer (40 runs) in the semi-final as well but could not prevent a 6-run defeat to hosts South Africa who reached the final of the tournament for the first time in history.
- Nat finished the tournament as the 2nd-highest run-getter – scoring 216 runs in 5 innings at an incredible average of 72 runs per inning and a tremendous strike rate of 141.17 runs per 100 balls faced. She was included in the ICC‘s ‘Team of the Tournament’ as its captain.
Featured Image by Nat Sciver-Brunt / Instagram