Top 5 Run Scorers in Women’s Cricket World Cups

Most people know about the long history involved in the ICC men’s cricket world cups but very few people know that the Women’s World Championship first took place before the men’s event, with the inaugural edition taking place all the way back in 1973. And with eleven editions being played so far, there are obviously quite a few records that have been generated over the years.

Today, we’re going to focus on the batters and list down the top run scorers in the Women’s World Cup till date. With players in the early days having longer careers, quite a few of them at the top of this list are now retired women’s cricketers. Updated as of 23 February 2022, we’ve listed the top run scorers before the start of the 2022 Women’s World Cup. See the full list here:

5) Mithali Raj

One of the leading lights in Indian women’s cricket, Mithali Raj has captained the Indian side through majority of her international career and has broken many records along the way as well. Her career includes 5 women’s cricket world cups between 2000-2017 and during that time, she amassed 1,139 runs in 31 games including 9 fifties and 2 centuries under her belt. She remains the only current cricketer among this list of top scorers in this tournament.

4) Belinda Clark

Another legend of the game, this Australian women’s cricketer is known for run scoring across all formats and known for being the first cricketer (both men’s and women’s) to score a double century in ODI cricket, doing so in 1997. Belinda Clark has 1,151 runs in 29 games in women’s world cups and this includes 6 fifties and a century between 1993-2005 where she played four World Cups. Now retired, she’s likely to fall down this list during the 2022 Women’s World Cup!

3) Charlotte Edwards

Yet another legend of women’s cricket, Charlotte Edwards has played 300+ international games for England and her cricketing career spanned 20+ years while she was still at it. Retired from the game in 2018, Edwards accumulated as many as 1,231 runs in 30 games at the Women’s World Cup between 1997-2013. This includes a total of five different world cups and she has the joint most centuries in the tournament’s history (four) which goes with 7 fifties as well.

2) Janette Brittin

We said that Edwards had a record for the joint most centuries, and that’s shared with Janette Brittin also from England who played four World Cups between 1982-1987 and scored 4 centuries and 3 fifties during her time at this tournament. Her record included 1,299 runs in 36 games in this tournament, with her best score being 138*. Dying a premature death in 2017, she passed away at the age of 58 years and is the only non-living person in this list.

1) Debbie Hockley

Having played 45 games in the five different women’s world cups between 1982-2000, there’s no one in the game to have played more world cup matches than Debbie Hockley from New Zealand. She’s scored 1,501 runs in her World Cup career and this includes two centuries and as many as 10 fifties. Another record she holds is that for the most number of fifties in the women’s world cup and she was also player of the match in the 1997 World Cup final against Australia Women.