Amy Hunter (born 11 October 2005) is an Irish

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who plays for

Dragons A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. In October 2021, during the final match of Ireland's tour of Zimbabwe, Hunter became the youngest cricketer, male or female, to score a century in an ODI match, doing so on her 16th birthday. As a result, Hunter was named as the Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman for October 2021. In January 2024, Hunter scored her first T20I century in the opening match of a series against Zimbabwe. This meant that she became the first Irish woman, and the third overall, to score a century in both T20I and ODI cricket.

Career

In October 2020, Hunter was named in Ireland's squad to play

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

at the

La Manga Club La Manga Club is a sports and leisure resort located in the south-eastern region of Spain, Murcia, south of La Manga, and bordered by the Mar Menor and Calblanque Regional Park. The resort complex opened in 1972 and covers an area of 1,400 a ...

during their

tour of Spain Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

. However, the matches were called off due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In May 2021, Hunter was again named in Ireland's squad to face Scotland, this time for a four-match

Women's Twenty20 International Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) is the shortest form of women's international cricket. A women's Twenty20 International is a 20 overs-per-side cricket match between two of the International Cricket Council (ICC) members. The first Twent ...

(WT20I) series in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

. She made her WT20I debut on 24 May 2021, for Ireland against Scotland. In August 2021, Hunter was added to Ireland's squad for the

2021 ICC Women's T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier The 2021 ICC Women's T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier was a cricket tournament that was played in August 2021 in Spain. The matches were played as Women's Twenty20 Internationals (WT20Is), with the top team progressing to the 2022 ICC Women's T20 ...

tournament in Spain. She replaced

Shauna Kavanagh Shauna Maire Kavanagh (born 21 April 1992) is a Dublin-born Irish international cricketer who plays her club level cricket at Pembroke Cricket Club. She attended school at Loretto College Foxrork, and later attended St. Andrews College in Bo ...

, after Kavanagh returned a positive test for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In September 2021, Hunter was named in Ireland's

Women's One Day International Women's One Day International (WODI) is the limited overs form of women's cricket. Matches are scheduled for 50 overs, equivalent to the men's game. The first women's ODIs were played in 1973, as part of the first Women's World Cup which was ...

(WODI) squad for their series against Zimbabwe, the first WODI matches to be played by the Zimbabwe team. She made her WODI debut on 5 October 2021, for Ireland against

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. In the fourth and final match against Zimbabwe, Hunter scored 121

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

, becoming the youngest cricketer to score a century in one-day cricket. Hunter's century was also the highest individual score for Ireland in a WODI match, beating the previous record of 120 runs made by Karen Young. In November 2021, she was named in Ireland's team for the

2021 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier The 2021 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier was an international women's cricket tournament that was held in Zimbabwe in November and December 2021. The tournament was the final part of the qualification process for the 2022 Women's Cricket Wor ...

tournament in Zimbabwe.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Amy 2005 births Living people Irish women cricketers Ireland women One Day International cricketers Ireland women Twenty20 International cricketers Place of birth missing (living people) Dragons (women's cricket) cricketers Typhoons (women's cricket) cricketers Cricketers from Belfast Sportswomen from Northern Ireland