With the retirement recently of Amy Satterthwaite from all levels of the game it is timely to pause and reflect on a wonderful career. During her time at the top levels of the game in NZ, Amy fashioned an impressive career record with both bat and ball. Her contribution to cricket in Canterbury and for NZ has been immense and continues a fine legacy of high quality female players from the province.
Amy, known to her teammates as Branch due to her tall, willowy stature, made her debut for the Canterbury Magicians in 2003/04 season whilst still at St Margaret’s College. Four years later she was called up to the NZ team for the Rosebowl series against Australia where she made her ODI and T20 debuts. Just a month on from this tour she made her first appearance in England where she stunned everyone with, what was at the time, the best figures in a Women’s T20I of 6/17.
Since then, she has predominantly made her mark with the bat at the international level, especially in the ODI format, hammering runs as a regular feature of the New Zealand middle order. She hit her maiden international century in December 2012 against Australia and followed this up with scores of 103 and 85 in successive matches against England in the 2013 Women’s World Cup. Amy’s most notable run of scores was in 2016/17 season when she equalled Kumar Sangakkara’s record of four consecutive centuries in ODIs with scores of 137, 115, 123 and 102* against Pakistan and Australia. In fact she came within a whisker of being the first player to score five consecutive hundreds when she fell for 85 against Australia.
This past season, Amy has reached another milestone in her illustrious career when she surpassed Frankie Mackay’s record as the most capped T20 player for the Canterbury Magicians. This adds further to her record as the most capped Magicians player of all time with over 200 games for the province as well as over 200 international appearances for her country.
Despite the impressive record, Amy’s humility would see her speak first and foremost of her desire to give back to the game. Earlier this year she had her first taste of elite level coaching when she spent time with the WBBL champions, the Adelaide Strikers, as an assistant coach. With the Women’s IPL starting up in India it won’t be her last. However, thankfully Amy will not be lost entirely to the game in Canterbury. She also has an ambition to help the next generation of cricketers in the province by continuing to help strengthen the quality and depth of players making their way in the game.