Just a month and 17 days past her 14th birthday, Wellington women's Kate Chandler entered the record books by picking up a List A five-for in just her third match at this level in the New Zealand Cricket Women's One Day Competition against Canterbury women at Christchurch's Hagley Oval on Saturday.
Legspinner Chandler, still a schoolgoer, had three wickets in her first two games - all of them in a ten-over spell of 3 for 39 against Central Districts women earlier this month - but returned 5 for 41 against Canterbury, helping Wellington bowl the opponents out for 155 in 46.1 overs. Wellington then ticked off the runs in in 32.1 overs for the loss of two wickets.
Chandler started the show when Canterbury were 117 for 4, first sending back Lea Tahuhu, a national team regular and then, in the same over - the 35th of the innings - the veteran Kate Ebrahim. Her other victims were Laura Hughes, KM Sims and Gabby Sullivan. Chandler even returned a wicket-maiden and a double-wicket-maiden along the way.
Whether Chandler has become the youngest in List A history to bag a five-for couldn't be ascertained, but an NZC statement said that her haul was the 14th best in Wellington women's List A history.