Lend Lease Breakers captain, Alex Blackwell, is set to join an elite club when she plays her 100th Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL) match for NSW this Saturday (October 27) against Queensland in Brisbane.
Blackwell will become the sixth NSW player to reach 100 games for this State.
Julie Hayes, Michelle Goszko and Lisa Sthalekar have all played 100 games in the WNCL competition, while Lisa Keightley and Leonie Coleman played their 100 matches across both the WNCL and Women’s National Championships, which ran prior to the 1996/97 season.
Blackwell made her WNCL debut against Queensland at Drummoyne Oval during the 2001/02 season. In her 99 matches for NSW so far, she has scored 3014 WNCL runs at an average of over 40, including six centuries with a highest score of 157.
This weekend, Blackwell will lead a Lend Lease Breakers side looking to build on their perfect start to the season when they take on Queensland in two T20 matches and a 50 over fixture at the Allan Border Field.
Selectors have made two changes to the squad which achieved a clean sweep of the ACT in Round One, with Australian allrounder Sarah Coyte returning to the side after recovering from the illness which ruled her out of the World T20 earlier this month.
Coyte replaces Nicola Carey, while Claire Koski also drops out of the squad which played the ACT with Ellyse Perry available for all three matches in Brisbane.
The full Lend Lease Breakers squad to play Queensland is (clubs/regions in brackets):
Alex Blackwell (captain – Universities/Riverina)
Rachael Haynes (vice-captain – Universities)
Sarah Aley (Bankstown Sports)
Sarah Coyte (Campbelltown-Camden)
Alyssa Healy (Sydney)
Sharon Millanta (Bankstown Sports)
Erin Osborne (St George-Sutherland/Central North)
Ellyse Perry (Sydney)
Leah Poulton (St George-Sutherland/Hunter)
Angela Reakes (Sydney/North Coast)
Lisa Sthalekar (Gordon)
Kara Sutherland (Universities/North Coast)
The team heads to Brisbane on Friday morning (October 26) with their first T20 game that afternoon. They then play the 50 over fixture on Saturday (October 27) with a second T20 game on Sunday morning (October 28).
