Molly Hide

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Molly Hide England (Eng)

Batting style	Right-hand bat (RHB)
Bowling type	Right-arm medium pace
	Tests
Matches	15
Runs scored	872
Batting average	36.33
100s/50s	2/5
Top score	124*
Balls bowled	2064
Wickets	36
Bowling average	15.25
5 wickets in innings	1
10 wickets in match	0
Best bowling	5/20
Catches/stumpings	10/0
Test debut: 28 December 1934 Last Test: 27 July 1954 Source: [1]

Mary ("Molly") Edith Hide (born 24 October 1913 in Shanghai, China; died 10 September 1995) was an English cricketer. She was one of the great early women cricketers in England, and captained England for 17 years. In 1973 she was president of the Women's Cricket Association.

Molly Hide was born in China and came to England at the age of six. She learnt her cricket at the girls' school of Wycombe Abbey and later studied agriculture at Reading University. Hide represented Worcestershire in representative matches in 1932 and 1933 and toured Australia and New Zealand with Betty Archdale's first English women touring team to those countries. She scored a hundred in the Christchurch Test where England defeated New Zealand in a one-sided match.

Hide was given the captaincy of the South of England team in 1936 and one year later, somewhat surprisingly, that of England against the touring Australian women. The series ended 1-1, Hide's major contribution was 5 for 20 in the second innings at Blackpool where England won by 25 runs.

During the second world war, she worked in her father's farm in Haslemere. Test cricket resumed after eleven years with a tour of Australia which England lost 0-1. Hide scored 63 & 124* in the drawn match at Sydney. She scored five hundreds in the tour including one in Colombo. She also captained England at home against Australia in 1951 and New Zealand in 1954.

Hide was a quick scoring right-handed batsman and bowled medium-paced off-spinners. According to G. D. Martineau, "the chief characteristic of Molly Hide on the cricket field was a very positive attitude that asserted what a game of cricket should be like. She put her ideas into practice, making great declarations, trusting her keen eyes, ready to hit the first ball for four, and always on the attack. There have been less chancy batsmen but her aim was ever to get on top of the bowling, so that the rate of scoring almost always quickened on her arrival. With a particularly strong on drive 'off her toes', she put character into her strokes, and there has been no better batsman".Her bowling suffered because of her concentration in batting, and her captaincy was described as inspiring.