Leigh Meghan Kasperek (born 15 February 1992) is a Scottish cricketer who plays internationally for the New Zealand national team. She previously played for the Scottish national side, but switched to New Zealand in order to play at a higher level.[1]
Born in Edinburgh, Kasperek made her senior national debut at the age of 15, playing for Scotland against English county sides in the 2007 County Challenge Cup.[2] Her international debut came later in the year, when she appeared against Ireland and the Netherlands at the European Championship.[3] Early in 2008, Kasperek was selected in Scotland's squad for the 2008 World Cup Qualifier in South Africa. She went on to play in four out of a possible five matches, but had little success, scoring only four runs and failing to take a wicket from her ten overs, while conceding 57 runs.[4]
Over the next few years, Kasperek firmly established herself as one of Scotland's leading all-rounders. One of her first notable performances came against Hampshire in the 2009 edition of the County Championship, when she took 3/2 from six overs to help bowl the side out for 76.[5] Later in the year, against the Netherlands at the 2009 European Championship, she scored a maiden half-century for Scotland, making 58 from 106 balls (including a 135-run partnership with Kari Anderson).[6] During the 2010 County Championship season, Kasperek scored 218 runs from her ten matches, behind only Kathryn White for Scotland.[7] Her best performance was an innings of 68 against Hampshire, which was her only half-century.[8]
For the 2011–12 season, Kasperek signed for the Western Fury, a team in Australia's Women's National Cricket League (WNCL), also playing club cricket for Midland-Guildford.[9][10] For the 2012 County Championship season, she switched from Scotland to Essex, although later in the year she did play one final international tournament, the European Twenty20 Qualifier in Ireland.[2] Having been named Essex's player of the year, later in the year Kasperek signed for the Wellington Blaze, which plays in the New Zealand State League.[11]
In 2022, Kasperek signed for Northern Diamonds as an overseas player for the upcoming season.[12] She played 13 matches for the side that season, across the Charlotte Edwards Cup and the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, taking 14 wickets.[13][14]
Kasperek had little success in her first season in New Zealand, with her eight matches yielding only 86 runs and a single wicket. For the 2013–14 season, she switched to the Otago Sparks (based in Dunedin), and went on to score two half-centuries. Kasperek impressed more with her bowling, taking 18 wickets to finish as the competition's leading wicket-taker,[15] including figures of 6/8 in one match against Canterbury.[16] The next season, she returned 15 wickets to be Otago's leading wicket taker and equal-fourth in the competition, but also lifted her batting, scoring 313 runs to place behind only Suzie Bates for Otago (and tenth in the competition).[17]
After three seasons in the New Zealand domestic competition, Kasperek met the ICC qualifications for representing the national team, although that had not been a specific goal of hers when she first moved there.[1] In May 2015, she was unexpectedly named in the squad for the 2015 tour of India.[18] Kasperek went on to play in every game on the tour, which comprised five One Day International (ODI) and three Twenty20 International matches.[19][20] On debut in the first ODI, she took 3/39 from 10 overs.[21] Later in 2015, against the touring Sri Lankans, Kasperek took 4/27, her maiden ODI four-wicket haul.[22]
In a Twenty20 International against Australia in February 2016, Kasperek took 4/7 from three overs. Amy Satterthwaite is the only New Zealander to take better figures.[23]
In August 2018, she was awarded a central contract by New Zealand Cricket, following the tours of Ireland and England in the previous months.[24][25] In October 2018, she was named in New Zealand's squad for the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies.[26][27] She was the leading wicket-taker for New Zealand in the tournament, with eight dismissals in four matches.[28]
In January 2020, she was named in New Zealand's squad for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia.[29]
During the 2nd WODI of the Australia tour of New Zealand in 2020-21, Kasperek took all bar one of the seven wickets to fall in the Australian innings,[30] finishing with figures of 6/46 from 10 overs,[30] the 17th best innings figures in Women's ODI history.[31] She finished as the leading wicket taker in the ODI leg of the series with 9 wickets, despite playing only two of the three matches.[32]
Media related to Leigh Kasperek at Wikimedia Commons
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