The women's death-overs specialists every captain wants

In the frantic final five overs of a T20 innings, when batters swing for the ropes and every dot ball feels like a small victory, the bowlers who can keep the runs down are worth their weight in gold. Rank women's bowlers by economy in overs 16-20, with a minimum of 250 legal balls, and one name sits above them all: Danielle Hazell.

Across those 283 death-overs deliveries, Hazell conceded just 6.38 runs per over while claiming 26 wickets — a combination of control and threat that any captain would happily hand the ball at the death. That she leads with an off-spinner's guile, rather than raw pace, underlines just how valuable smart bowling becomes when the field spreads and the batters attack.

Behind her, Anisa Mohammed (6.60 from 288 balls, 19 wickets) and Nashra Sandhu (6.68 from 290 balls, 15 wickets) show that spin dominates this elite list. Nahida Akter is next at 6.81, and notably she has done it across a heavier workload of 395 balls, matching Hazell's tally of 26 wickets in the process.

Sugandika Kumari (6.92) and Stafanie Taylor (6.98) round out those going at under seven an over, with Taylor's 29 wickets from 434 balls marking her as both economical and destructive. Sadia Iqbal and Lauren Smith share an identical 7.04, before Erin Osborne (7.05) and Georgia Wareham complete the top ten.

Wareham's entry is remarkable for its scale: 622 legal balls, comfortably the largest sample here, and a chart-topping 54 wickets at 7.12. A low death-overs economy is elite precisely because these are the highest-pressure deliveries in the format — restrict the scoring here, and you routinely turn defendable totals into winning ones.