With a barrage of boundaries, two fifers in a day, and a thrilling third match, the Women's Premiere League (WPL) fever is slowly catching on. The second day of WPL, on March 5, witnessed its first-ever five-wicket haul as Delhi Capital's Tara Norris dismantled Royal Challengers Bangalore's middle order, helping the team claim victory by a huge margin of 60 runs.
Norris, a twenty-four-year-old American seamer, ripped apart RCB's batting line-up in her debut WPL match by consistently taking wickets and not giving RCB any scope to cope. Ellyse Perry (31) and Disha Kasat (9) were Norris' first two wickets in the 11th over, followed by Richa Ghosh (2), Kanika Ahuja (0) and Heather Kinght (34). Making a dream debut against Bangalore(5/29), she was also named the Player of the Match.
Meet Delhi Capital's Tara Norris
With 67 T20 matches to her name, the 24-year-old left-arm swing bowler hails from the US. Bought by Delhi Capitals at a base price of Rs 10 lakh in the first WPL auction, Norris is the only Associate member player in WPL 2023. An Associate member country refers to one where cricket is played in an organised manner but hasn't qualified to be a full member yet. Making her debut in October 2021, Norris helped the USA win the 2021 ICC Americas Women's T20 Qualifier by taking four wickets in five T20I matches at an economy rate of 1.72.
Currently, Norris plays for Sussex, North West Thunder, Southern Brave and Delhi Capitals. Sussex County Cricket Club is a first-class county club in England and Wales for domestic cricket. Similarly, North West Thunder is a women's cricket team that represents Lancashire and North West England. While Southern Brave is a Southampton-based franchise, Delhi Capitals is an Indian women's cricket team, competing in WPL 2023.
Norris has previously played for Loughborough Lightning and Southern Vipers, both women's cricket teams, representing Loughborough and the South of England respectively.
How did Delhi Capitals play with five overseas players?
According to the Women's Premier League rules, a team can't have more than four overseas players in its starting eleven for any match. However, the team may name up to one overseas player from Associate Nations in its starting XI for any match, who will not be considered as an overseas player.
Norris is the first American and the only associate nation player in WPL this season. This allowed Delhi Capitals to field five overseas players in XI despite a four-player limit in WPL 2023.
While 19 Associate players registered for the Women's Premiere League auction, Norris was the only one to make her way through."I am really happy to represent USA and the associate team as well. Hopefully, next year there will be a bigger profile for associate players," Tara Norris said after winning the first match against RCB on March 5.
According to International Cricket Association (ICC), Associate Members are the governing bodies for cricket of a country recognised by the ICC, or countries associated for cricket purposes, or a geographical area, which does not qualify as a Full Member, but where cricket is firmly established and organised.
With Tara Norris paving the way, and a brilliant team effort, Delhi Capitals climbed up to the second spot in the points table with a net run rate of +3.00 after their first match on March 5.