Having missed most of final yr via damage, Chathli started this season with a career-high 95 within the T20 Cup in opposition to Hampshire. She additionally made a match-winning 65 in opposition to Warwickshire within the Blast.
With Warwickshire the opponents once more within the closing, it was Chathli who hit the successful runs in Surrey’s chase.
“I fairly like problem-solving,” says Chathli, a chemistry graduate from College Faculty London.
“I used to play chess after I was youthful so I take pleasure in that.
“I am fairly good at studying pitches and the tempo of the sport.
“I like whacking the ball, however I additionally actually benefit from the tactical aspect of cricket and getting right into a battle with the bowler – what are they attempting to do, and what can I do to get the higher of them?”
Chathli’s father is Harry Chathli, the general public relations and enterprise professional who served as Yorkshire’s chair between October 2023 and Might 2024.
Her early introduction to the game got here on household journeys to India – her father was born in Mumbai – or when watching him play membership cricket.
“It was in all probability a bit of bit inevitable,” she says.
In 2016, Chathli made native information headlines when she turned the primary feminine participant to attain a fifty for the boys’s groups at Dulwich Cricket Membership – a membership that has been in existence since 1867.
Her youthful brother additionally scored a fifty in the identical match that day, although it later took a flip.
“He smashed the ball straight to additional cowl and ran me out,” she laughs. “That is undoubtedly logged within the reminiscence financial institution.”
9 years on, Chathli made her first fifty in The Hundred in Spirit’s win in opposition to Birmingham Phoenix earlier this month.
On the different finish was Australia celebrity and Spirit team-mate Harris, as she was once they took Surrey over the road in that Blast closing.
“Grace is humorous. She’ll preserve it easy and say, ‘In the event that they bowl size, simply ramp it; if it is full, simply step again and clear it excessive for six’,” says Chathli.
“It is good to know her thought course of, however that is not likely my recreation.
“I am often not fussed about milestones, however the reality it was my first [fifty] on the highest degree that now we have on this nation, it is exhausting to not be fairly joyful.
“It was good to show that I can do it on the most important stage. To be on the market with Grace, it was fairly particular.”
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