Around June-July 2025, Danni Wyatt-Hodge must have feared that her career as an England cricketer was coming to an end. She had experienced a succession of failures that summer, including two succesive first-ball disnissals, and was lucky that an injury to Nat Sciver-Brunt enabled her to keep her place for the third T20 match against India.
As it was, she opened the batting with her close friend Sophia Dunkley. She looked out-of-touch and not once but twice, offered up easy catches that were dropped by the Indian fielders! Given this extraordinary slice of luck, she steadily grew in confidence, began to play good shots again, and eventually reached a half-century while contributing to a century opening partnership with Dunkley. England won the match in a very tight finish.
After this, Danni's place in the team was secure for the rest of the tournament. The third and final match was her 300th appearance for England: she was awarded a special shirt, scored another half-century to mark the occasion, and she and Sophia Dunkley once again achieved a century opening stand, enabling England to sneak a win on the last ball of the 20th over.
It was on the strength of this that Danni was named in the England squad for the ODI worl cup in India that autumn. She was clearly meant to be a reserve, and was not selected for any of the early games, but the England middle order performed poorly, and she was brought in to bat at number 6 in the semifinal against South Africa. As it happened, England were slaughtered, but Danni at least made a respectable contribution, scoring 37 and only being dismissed when the match had been lost beyond recall.
Next came Women's Big Bash League in Australia. Danni signed for Hobart Hurricanes, formed a powerful opening partnership with Lizelle Lee and was voted their player of the tournament. Two other British women. Linsey Smith and Nat Sciver-Brunt, also performed excellently for Hurricanes, who in consequence won the tournaament for the very first time!
In the New Year these three, plus Lauren Bell, headed for India to play in the Women's Premier League. Danni had signed for Gudjerat Giants, but as it happened she was only intended as a reserve, and only got to play one match. By conytast, Lauren Bell not only had great success with the ball, but attracted an enormous following on Indian social media!
Danni began the 2026 summer in imperious style, smashing a century for Surrey Women against Warwickshire Women at Edgbaston (when I was there to watch!) and soon followed it up with an innings of 96 and then another century,
but she then took a month out of cricket, because her partner, Georgie, had given birth to a baby girl!
Danni adored little Daisy, spoke of how much the birth had changed her outlook on life, and was soon bringing her to matches to show to her friends.
Returning to cricket, Danni did not score many runs in the warmups to the T20 world cup, and once again must have wondered if her place in the team was in jeopardy, but once again Charlotte Edwaeds's faith in her proved justified, when she scored a magnificent century in the opening match against Sri Lanka, which England won with ease. Danni celebrated with motions of rocking a cradle in her arms.
Next came a half-century against the West Indies, and then a splendid 89 not out against New Zealand, sharing in a winning unbroken century partnership with Sophia Dunkley.
Then came the Hundred tournament. Danni had played for Southern Brave with great success for the previous five years, but now transferred to what was now called MIlondon, based at the Oval. It was not a strong squad, and suffered heavy defeats in their first two matches. Then in the third match, Danni, having scored yet another 50, had no hit a boundary of the last ball to gain a victory; but she only managed to score 2, and the match was lost by 1 run! The worst part, however, was that she sustained an injury to her calf which ruled her out of the rest of the tournament and has not played since.
So Danni's twelve months, having begun with a stroke of good luck ended with some bad luck. But she had had a splendid year, scoring not far short of a thousand runs.
Here is a charming photo of Danni with partner Georgie and baby Daisy
By the time the Australian team visits England next year, Danni will be 36, so quite possibly her international career is already at an end. But if so, she can look back on a magnificent record of achievements: 311 matches for England, almost 6,000 runs scored for her country, and the only woman ever to score 300 runs in a T20 tournament. Vet few cricketers could boast as much.
