GROS ISLET, St Lu­cia – Vet­er­an off-spin­ner Anisa Mo­hammed has point­ed to her record 100th wick­et in Twen­ty20 In­ter­na­tion­als as the high­light of her out­stand­ing ca­reer, as she pre­pares to play her 100th T20I when West In­dies clash with South Africa tonight.

The 30-year-old has tak­en 113 wick­ets from 99 T20 In­ter­na­tion­als and will join team­mate De­an­dra Dot­tin in the 100 club, once she is named in the XI for the Windies’ sec­ond match of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup at the Dar­ren Sam­my Crick­et Sta­di­um.

Mo­hammed made his­to­ry when she took her 100th T20I wick­et in her 81st match two years ago dur­ing the suc­cess­ful Windies World Cup cam­paign in In­dia.

“[The high­light of my ca­reer was] def­i­nite­ly the 100th wick­et and that was in the last T20 World Cup in In­dia,” Mo­hammed told re­porters here Tues­day.

“It’s nice to be able to play a hun­dred T20 In­ter­na­tion­al games but it would be nice for us to win this World Cup and re­tain our ti­tle. That would be a great achieve­ment for us as a team.”

She added: “When­ev­er I step on the field I want to give it my best per­for­mance. Be­ing able to take a hun­dred wick­ets and break­ing that record – be­ing the first male or fe­male – it kind of hits you that you can do things that peo­ple thought you could nev­er do.”

Mo­hammed made her de­but in West In­dies’ first ever T20 In­ter­na­tion­al 10 years ago against Ire­land in Dublin, but iron­i­cal­ly did not bowl a sin­gle ball.

How­ev­er, she has since gone on to take three five-wick­et hauls, along with an amaz­ing hat-trick against South Africa last Sep­tem­ber dur­ing South Africa’s tour of the Caribbean.

T&t's Mo­hammed, who has al­so played over 100 One-Day In­ter­na­tion­als, said she had tried suc­cess­ful­ly to carve her own niche in the in­ter­na­tion­al game.

“I like to be my­self. From the time I start­ed I al­ways want­ed to make a name for my­self. I nev­er want­ed to em­u­late any­body else. Like I said, I want­ed to make a name for my­self and stand out,” she ex­plained.

“I love rep­re­sent­ing West In­dies. It’s one of the things I look for­ward to. It’s one of the rea­sons I en­joy wak­ing up every morn­ing.

“The girls on this team – we’re just not a bunch of girls who come to­geth­er from dif­fer­ent is­lands – we’re ac­tu­al­ly a fam­i­ly and I think that makes it a lot bet­ter to go out there and play as a team and that has been work­ing for us.”

Not a big spin­ner of the ball, Mo­hammed has re­lied on her un­err­ing ac­cu­ra­cy over the years for her suc­cess, and says she had fo­cussed on keep­ing her bowl­ing sim­ple.

“[It (ac­tion) has changed a bit over the past few years but off-spin is off-spin and you try to stick to the ba­sics and that’s what’s been work­ing for me over the years.”

(CMC)