Karen Rolton

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Karen Louise Rolton (born in Adelaide on 21 November 1974) is an Australian cricketer. A left-handed batsperson and occasional left-arm medium-paced bowler, she has scored the most runs for Australia in women's Test cricket.^[1] She is one of the biggest names in Australian women's cricket, and has led the Australian team to a range of titles.

Rolton plays domestic cricket for South Australia Women. She made her international debut for Australia in 1995. As of 7 March 2007, she has played in 12 Test matches, scoring 933 runs at a batting average of 66.64, including two centuries and five half-centuries. She made her top score of 209 not out against England at Headingley in 2001,^[1] setting a world record. With the ball, she has taken 14 Test wickets with a bowling average of 23.35. She has also scored 3,939 runs at 56.75 and taken 84 wickets at 20.73 in her 108 Women's One-day Internationals. She has also played in two international Twenty20 matches. She was vice-captain of the Australian team from 1997, and took over from Belinda Clark as captain in February 2006.^[2]

New Zealand coach Steve Jenkin once joked that the best tactic against Rolton was to avoid dismissing the Australia's women team's openers so she couldn't bat.^[3]

She has twice won the Allan Border Medal for Women International Cricket Players of the Year in consecutive years, in 2002 and 2003 and then in 2005 and 2006. She scored 107 in the final of the Women's Cricket World Cup in 2005, and was named as "man of the match". She was the ICC's inaugural Female Player of the Year in 2006.

During the winter, Rolton plays hockey.^[1]