Tag: Chloe Ainsworth

A One Woman Show in Sydney

A look back at a historic innings in the WBBL and a photo gallery.

Overnight in the Women’s Big Bash League Hobart Hurricanes played Perth Scorchers at the SCG. This was the first half of a double header, with the Sydney derby following. This post looks back at a history making performance in that match.

HURRICANE LIZELLE BLOWS SCORCHERS OFF COURSE

Perth Scorchers won the toss and put Hobart Hurricanes in to bat. Lizelle Lee, opening batter for Hobart Hurricanes, proceeded to blow Scorcher’s plans to smithereens with a display of jaw dropping brutality. The Power Play overs offered little foretaste of what was to come – Hurricanes were 34-2 after the four overs of mandatory Power Play. Hurricanes reached 50 after exactly six overs. Lee was already dominating the scoring, and she reached her own 50 off 29 balls. By the halfway stage the score had risen to 86-2, with Lee now 65*. Hurricanes took the two over Power Surge immediately on the resumption, the earliest point at which the playing conditions allow it, and 31 runs came from the two overs for no loss. Lee was now in overdrive mode, and her century arrived off her 51st ball. She was far from done. When her score reached 137 she had set the all time WBBL individual record, displacing Grace Harris. She was back on strike with three balls left in the innings and 190 on the board in total. She hit balls four and five of that 20th over for sixes to move to 149 and take Hurricanes past 200. A single off the final ball of the innings saw her to the first ever individual 150 in WBBL cricket, only nine short of the all time record in women’s professional T20 cricket, set for the Northwests by none other than Lee herself. Lee had faced 75 balls, thereby finishing with an SR of precisely 200 for the innings. Among the carnage one bowler escaped all but unscathed: 19 year old pacer Chloe Ainsworth recorded figures of 4-0-17-2, conceding no sixes and only one four. Her team mates thus had a combined 1-186 from 16 overs, an average ER of 11.625 per bowler. An average four over spell from among every bowler other than Ainsworth would have yielded 46.50 runs, so Ainsworth was either 29 or 30 runs more economical than any of her team mates would have been expected to be from a four over allocation.

After that display by Lee neither the result nor the Player of the Match award were in any significant doubt. In the event Scorchers, forced to take risks in pursuit of a huge total, lost wickets rapidly, and ended up 131 all out, beaten by 72 runs, a colossal margin in this form of the game. Heather Graham had 3-24, Lauren Smith with 4-0-11-2 was the most economical bowler on either side. Molly Strano, one of the most consistent performers across the whole ten seasons of the WBBL, also deserves a mention, recording 3-0-17-2. Ainsworth, the sole effective bowler for the Scorchers earlier on, was also top scorer for them, hitting 41 off 27 balls. Both sides now have six points, though Hurricanes have played a game more, and unsurprisingly after this match have a better net run rate.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

WBBL10 Under Way

A look at the two WBBL10 games on which there were radio commentaries today, and a large photo gallery.

The 10th edition of the Women’s Big Bash League is underway. I got most of two commentaries today, first Melbourne Renegades against Sydney Sixers, which was happening on neutral territory, at Adelaide, and then Perth Scorchers against Melbourne Stars which took place at the historic WACA stadium in Perth.

RENEGADES v SIXERS – A BATTLE WITHIN A BATTLE

This match, a battle between representatives of Australia’s two biggest cities was dominated by titanic individual performances from two of Australian cricket’s biggest stars.

Renegades batted well, with the highlight a spectacular 61 (31) from Georgia Wareham. For the Sixers skipper Ellyse Perry was easily the best of the bowlers, recording 4-0-25-2. Caoimhe Bray (that first name is apparently pronounced ‘Keeva’), all of 15 years and 34 days old, meaning that Perry is quite genuinely old enough to be her mother, was given a single over of right arm medium fast. She conceded 15 runs, but ended the over by extracting an ample measure of vengeance, rearranging Deandra Dottin’s stumps.

Perry launched a spectacular onslaught at the start of the Sixers reply. Yorkshire batting all rounder Hollie Armitage opened the innings with Perry and provided splendid support, contributing 30 (23) to an opening stand of 79 in 7.2 overs. Ashleigh Gardner fell cheaply, but Scottish batter/ keeper Sarah Bryce provided Perry further support. It took an excellent catch by Linsey Smith off Wareham to end Perry’s innings, for 81 off 38 balls. Wareham, backed by fellow spinners Smith and Capsey now seemed to have swung the match in her and the Renegades’ favour, with Courtney Sippel’s dismissal making the score 147-7. At that point the youngster, Bray, joined Bryce, and Bryce finally found her best form. It was Bray, on her debut in professional cricket, who made the winning hit, a four off the final ball of the 19th over that took her score to 12* (5), while Bryce had 36* (25). Wareham had 3-0-26-3. With the Sixers winning Perry was named Player of the Match – had Renegades won it would almost certainly have been given to Wareham. Scorecard here.

SCORCHERS v STARS – BOWLERS DOMINANT

Scorchers batted first, and run getting was never easy, though Mooney (skipper and keeper as well as opening batter) and Amy Jones (playing as specialist batter) each reached 30, and Chloe Piparo managed 23. A total of 122-8 looked modest. Left arm spinner Sophie Day had 3-21 from her four overs.

Ines McKeon, a 17 year old batter/keeper, and Meg Lanning opened the batting for the Stars. McKeon was impressive right from the start, but Lanning never got going. The first turning point of the innings was a sensational over from Chloe Ainsworth, a 19 year old fast bowling all rounder, the first ball of which cleaned up Lanning, and the fifth did the same to Annabel Sutherland. McKeon was playing a gem of an innings, all the more extraordinary given how young she is, but could find no one to stay with her. Marizanne Kapp briefly looked like doing so, but was run out when leg spinner Alana King deflected a fiercely struck drive from McKeon into the bowler’s end stumps with the South African out of her ground. Thereafter it became a procession, and when Sophie Reid was sixth out only 78 were on the board. Kim Garth finally provided McKeon with some support, and the youngster brought up a superb 50 off 43 balls. The next delivery was a wide, off which Beth Mooney executed a smart stumping. That was 95-7, and it was down to Garth and numbers 9,10 and 11 to conjure 28 runs between them. Bizarrely cricinfo’s Win Predictor still had the Stars as favourites at that point, a reminder that AI is far from all powerful – to anyone who knew anything whatsoever about cricket the Stars after McKeon’s dismissal were rank outsiders. Five runs later Carly Leeson, whose first over had been disfigured by a number of wides, but whose second was a lot better, took a wonderful return catch to account for Garth, and now even Win Predictor recognized the writing on the wall for the Stars. The last two wickets scraped a further nine runs, the majority extras. Ninth out was Sasha Moloney, bowled by Lilly Mills for 1. Number 11 Maisy Gibson survived one ball, but off her second the Mooney/ King combo were in business for the second time of the innings, and the match was over with Scorchers winning by 13 runs. Although King with 3-20 had the best figures of the innings it was quite correctly Ainsworth, who had broken things open for the Scorchers with those two monster scalps of Lanning and Sutherland who was named Player of the Match. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…