The women's death-overs specialists every captain wants

In T20 cricket, the last five overs are where matches are won and lost. Batters swing for the ropes, fielding restrictions offer no shelter, and a single expensive over can flip a chase. That is why a low death-overs economy — runs conceded per over between overs 16 and 20 — is one of the most prized commodities in the game. The bowlers who keep that number down are the ones every captain wants at the top of their mark when the pressure peaks.

By that measure, Danielle Hazell stands alone. Across 283 legal balls in overs 16-20, she has conceded just 6.38 runs per over while claiming 26 wickets — the tightest death economy among women's bowlers with at least 250 balls in the phase. That combination of control and strikes is precisely what makes a death specialist elite: choking the scoring without leaking cheap boundaries.

Behind her, the West Indies pair of Anisa Mohammed (6.60) and Stafanie Taylor (6.98) underline the region's spin pedigree, Taylor's 29 wickets from 434 balls marking her as a genuine dual threat. Pakistan are well represented too, with Nashra Sandhu (6.68), Sadia Iqbal (7.04) and Sugandika Kumari of Sri Lanka (6.92) all inside seven an over.

Bangladesh's Nahida Akter deserves special mention, matching Hazell's 26 wickets across a heftier 395-ball sample at 6.81. Volume matters here: the more balls bowled, the harder economy is to protect.

That truth crowns Georgia Wareham. Her 7.12 economy sits tenth on this list, but it comes across 622 balls — comfortably the largest workload — yielding a phase-leading 54 wickets. Sustaining that over such a sample is its own kind of elite. In the death overs, staying calm is everything.