Having missed most of last year through injury, Chathli began this season with a career-high 95 in the T20 Cup against Hampshire. She also made a match-winning 65 against Warwickshire in the Blast.<\/p>\n
With Warwickshire the opponents again in the final, it was Chathli who hit the winning runs in Surrey’s chase.<\/p>\n
“I quite like problem-solving,” says Chathli, a chemistry graduate from University College London.<\/p>\n
“I used to play chess when I was younger so I enjoy that.<\/p>\n
“I’m quite good at reading pitches and the pace of the game.<\/p>\n
“I like whacking the ball, but I also really enjoy the tactical side of cricket and getting into a battle with the bowler – what are they trying to do, and what can I do to get the better of them?”<\/p>\n
Chathli’s father is Harry Chathli, the public relations and business expert who served as Yorkshire’s chair between October 2023 and May 2024.<\/p>\n
Her early introduction to the sport came on family trips to India – her father was born in Mumbai – or when watching him play club cricket.<\/p>\n
“It was probably a little bit inevitable,” she says.<\/p>\n
In 2016, Chathli made local news headlines when she became the first female player to score a fifty for the men’s teams at Dulwich Cricket Club – a club that has been in existence since 1867.<\/p>\n
Her younger brother also scored a fifty in the same match that day, though it later took a turn.<\/p>\n
“He smashed the ball straight to extra cover and ran me out,” she laughs. “That’s definitely logged in the memory bank.”<\/p>\n
Nine years on, Chathli made her first fifty in The Hundred in Spirit’s win against Birmingham Phoenix earlier this month.<\/p>\n
At the other end was Australia superstar and Spirit team-mate Harris, as she was when they took Surrey over the line in that Blast final.<\/p>\n
“Grace is funny. She’ll keep it simple and say, ‘If they bowl length, just ramp it; if it’s full, just step back and clear it over the top for six’,” says Chathli.<\/p>\n
“It’s nice to know her thought process, but that’s not really my game.<\/p>\n
“I’m usually not fussed about milestones, but the fact it was my first [fifty] at the highest level that we have in this country, it’s hard not to be pretty happy.<\/p>\n
“It was nice to prove that I can do it on the biggest stage. To be out there with Grace, it was pretty special.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having missed most of last year through injury, Chathli began this season with a career-high 95 in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-87645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}