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Growing up, Deandra Dottin used to watch cricket on television. Gradually, she started swinging the bat purely for fun, before becoming part of the evening street matches. Soon enough, she was pursuing the sport seriously. When she was 17, she convinced her coach at St James secondary school to include her in the boys' side. He agreed, reluctantly, and she went on to score a hundred to take the team to an improbable victory. In the process, she has announced her arrival.For those who know her, the innings against South Africa on Wednesday didn't come as a surprise. Batting at number six, the 19-year old re-wrote the record books with the fastest ever century in World Twenty20 cricket — off just 38 balls, with nine sixes and five fours. She also became the first woman to hit a century in this format and already holds the fastest-fifty record to her name.Though a West Indian, her inspiration when it comes to big-hitting are Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag and Herschelle Gibbs — the latter also her favourite cricketer. "Sehwag and Dhoni are those two cricketers I love to watch bat and I, too, am a really aggressive person with the bat," she says. "I used to play around in the town and picked it from there, I live in Barbados and here, cricket means everything," Dottin told The Indian Express from St Kitts.A gifted athlete, she won gold in discus, javelin and shot put at the national level, and narrowly missed out on making the u-17 national football team. Yet cricket remained her first love. One reason behind that is that she comes from a family of cricketers — her brothers have represented Barbados while cousin Ottis Gibson went on to play for West Indies, and is at present the team's coach.Dottin admits her game plan against South Africa was to stay at the crease and hit only the loose deliveries. "We had lost a few wickets and I wanted to just stay at the crease but soon I realised that the situation was getting bad and I need to hit out to score a few runs. The ball really came off my bat and after the first few hits, I knew it was my day," she says.Praises came from all quarters, including Chris Gayle. "I want to 'shout out' to Deandra and congratulate her on her brilliant knock. I can only imagine what it must have been like seeing the ball disappearing to all parts of park. She took my record from me so I'm happy it stayed right here in the West Indies. I hope she keeps up the good work and plays more innings like that to help the girls to go all the way. We will be backing them," said the West Indies men's team skipper.
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