Karen Rolton



Karen Louise Rolton (born in Adelaide on 21 November 1974) is a former Australian cricketer. A left-handed batsman and occasional left-arm medium-paced bowler, she has scored the most runs for Australia in women's Test cricket.

Rolton plays domestic cricket for South Australian Scorpions. She made her international debut for Australia in 1995. She has played in 14 Test matches, scoring 1,002 runs at a batting average of 55.66, including two centuries and five half-centuries. She made her top score of 209 not out against England at Headingley in 2001,setting a world record. With the ball, she has taken 14 Test wickets with a bowling average of 23.35. She has also scored 4,814 runs at 48.14 and taken 85 wickets at 20.81 in her 141 Women's One-day Internationals, holding the record for the number of appearances until England's Charlotte Edwards won her her 142nd cap in 2010. She has also played in two international Twenty20 matches. She was vice-captain of the Australian team from 1997, and took over from Belinda Clark as captain in February 2006.

New Zealand coach Steve Jenkin once joked that the best tactic against Rolton was to avoid dismissing the Australia's women team's openers so she could not bat.

She has twice won the Australian International Woman Cricketer of the Year award (presented at the Allan Border Medal night) in consecutive years, in 2002 and 2003 and then in 2005 and 2006. She scored 107 in the final of the Women's Cricket World Cup in 2005, and was named as "man of the match". She was the International Cricket Council's inaugural Female Player of the Year in 2006. She also holds the highest score in Women's Twenty20 cricket with an unbeaten 96.

During the winter, Rolton plays hockey.

Rolton announced her retirement from international cricket in January 2010, after a 14 year career.

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