Dani Gibson played a crucial role in London Spirit’s tense win in The Hundred final yesterday (August 18), scoring 22 off nine balls in a low-scoring thriller. Ahead of the match, she spoke to Wisden.com about her whirlwind journey from dropping out of university to prioritise cricket, to establishing herself as one of England’s most promising all-rounders.
Halfway through London Spirit’s chase in front of a record crowd at Lord’s, Welsh Fire were in desperate need of a wicket. Having only mustered 118 from their innings, and with Spirit almost halfway to the target two wickets down, Fire turned to their star bowler Shabnim Ismail to keep them in the game. She delivered immediately, a perfect ball which nipped back in to peg back Heather Knight’s middle stump. With so much of Spirit’s firepower in their top order, Dani Gibson walked out with little room for error.
Two balls later, with Ismail sending down rocket after rocket, Gibson went on the back foot, opening the face of the bat and tapping the ball through wide third man and down to the boundary for four. The very next ball, she went on the attack, swiping at a back of a length ball from Ismail which flew down to the midwicket boundary. The pressure Spirit had been under just minutes before was released.
After hitting Ismail for consecutive fours, Gibson gave Hayley Matthews the same treatment in the following set. On the front foot this time, she smashed a floaty delivery over the inner ring and down to the boundary. She went squarer off Matthews’ next delivery, placing the ball just out of reach of the point fielder for another boundary.
By the time she was out six balls later, she’d put Spirit ahead in the chase, allowing the rest of the batting lineup to deal in singles before Deepti Sharma struck the final blow, hitting Matthews for six with two balls remaining.
A dramatic finish at Lord’s! 😮#TheHundredpic.twitter.com/A4OTqCgorg
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) August 18, 2024
Gibson has become a player for the pressure scenarios in every role she plays. For England, she’s been often used as a death bowler over the last nine months, and comes in at No.7 as the innings finisher they’ve been searching for in the T20I format.
“I enjoy going out and boffing it at the end,” Gibson tells Wisden.com. “If I keep performing then in a few year's time, for England anyway, I might get bumped up, but I’m happy where I am right now… [Bowling at the death] has also helped me as a batter because I can put myself in a batting mindset and think, ‘What is the bowler going to bowl here that might be hard to hit?
After the final at Lord’s, Gibson told Sky Sports that part of her aggressive approach with the bat came from dissatisfaction with the way she’d bowled earlier in the match. She conceded 16 runs off her 10 deliveries and was hit for three fours in one set by Jess Jonassen towards the end of the innings. While bowling at the death isn’t a role Gibson’s new to, having done so for Western Storm over several seasons, at levels above the regional structure the challenge is different.
“My skillset is variations,” says Gibson. “I’m good at knowing what ball to bowl. I’ve got my slower balls, my yorkers and the wide plan, and I wanted to be a death bowler [for England], so being able to have that focus meant I was able to practice and think about the game tactically.
"On the morning of the game, I’ll chat to Heather and the coaches about plans and scenarios just in case. If I feel under pressure I can get through things too quickly so I need to remember to take my time and really focus on what I’m going to bowl next ball, and forget about the ball that’s just gone. If it’s not gone well then I won’t be in a positive mindset, but if I’m clear on what I’m going to bowl then I’m more likely to commit and execute better.”
Gibson credits The Hundred with allowing her to develop her skills to cover the gap between the regional set-up and international cricket. As one of the first generations of players who have had The Hundred available to them as a pathway, Gibson has played all but two of London Spirit’s matches since the competition started. Her performances in an often below-par Spirit side were decisive in earning her first England call-up last year.
“[The Hundred] exposes you to really high-pressure situations and crowds,” says Gibson. “It’s quite a big step up from regional to international, and now we’ve got this middle-way with The Hundred. We get 100 people watching at regional, and 15-20,000 with England, and now we’ve got this midway in The Hundred where younger girls can be exposed to the pressure and standard of high-quality players, so it’s not such a big shock. It eases that process of going into international games.”
While crowds for the men’s Hundred plateaued this year after three years of growth, record numbers once again flocked in for the women’s competition. For the final at Lord’s 22,000 fans poured in, setting a new attendance record for the women’s final, and meaning seven of the eight grounds set new records for attendance in the women’s format across the season. Winning The Hundred in front of a packed Lord’s crowd caps off a whirlwind year for Gibson.
Having spent the 2023 T20 World Cup in South Africa as a travelling reserve, she broke into England’s T20I XI during the Ashes, hitting the winning runs to secure a first series win over Australia in the format for five years. Since January, she’s featured in all but two of England’s T20Is and is set to play a crucial role in the upcoming World Cup in Bangladesh, with backing from Knight following yesterday’s final.
“She’s a player that can impact a game in all three facets,” said Knight in the post-match press conference. “We saw the game she played at Lord’s, a reverse-sweep to go and win the game against Australia last year, and that’s the sort of mindset we want in that England side - the willingness to take risks, take the game on and express your talent. Dani epitomises that.”
A product of the regional system as much as The Hundred, Gibson was awarded her first professional contract in 2020, as part of the first-ever tranche of professional women’s domestic players in England. Having been set to study sports coaching at Loughborough College, upon receipt of that contract she transferred to Cardiff Met, before dropping out of university altogether to prioritise a newly available career as a professional cricketer.
“I thought, ‘I just want to focus on cricket and dedicate myself to that’,” said Gibson. “I can do studies later down the line if I want to and actually do something I’m really interested in. So I just gave cricket a really good go.”
Four years later, Gibson is one of 18 centrally contracted players, picked up a deal with the Adelaide Strikers in the WBBL last year, and is now a Hundred winner. That ‘good go’ has reaped its rewards.
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