A maiden Women’s National Cricket League century to Leah Poulton and a hat-trick to off-spinner Erin Osborne in this morning’s Women’s T20 match were amongst the highlights as the Lend Lease Breakers completed a clean sweep of their round of matches against Tasmania in Launceston (October 25-27).
The Lend Lease Breakers opened their 2013/14 campaign with a 76 run victory in the first of two T20 matches on Friday. NSW hit 3-181 off their 20 overs which equalled their own record for the highest team score in the history of the WT20 competition. They then restricted Tasmania to 6-105.
Saturday’s match was a 50 over affair. Batting first, the NSW top order failed to make the most of their starts as the team slumped to 4-68. Momentum began to shift back the visitor’s way when Ellyse Perry joined Leah Poulton at the crease with the scoreboard reading 5-102. Scoring at a tick over six runs an over, they put on 111 runs for the sixth wicket before Perry was dismissed for 34 off 41 balls.
Poulton went on to score a crucial 109 from 115 balls, with her innings featuring 15 fours and one six. This was her first ever century in the WNCL with the milestone coming in her 91st match. Poulton has only ever scored one other century for NSW, with that coming in a WT20 game against the ACT in Canberra two seasons ago.
In reply, Tasmania were bowled out for just 109 in 40.1 overs to give the Lend Lease Breakers a double bonus point win to start the competition.
This morning the teams played the second of their two WT20 matches. Tasmania won the toss and chose to bat first, however, they only managed to post 78 runs from their allotted overs. For NSW, Sarah Aley continued her excellent form with the ball, taking 3-7 from four overs to add to her three wickets on Friday.
Off-spinner, Erin Osborne, finished with 4-17 off four overs. She dismissed the last three Tasmanian batters with consecutive deliveries to earn herself a hat-trick.
NSW made light work of the chase. The winning runs coming in the 14th over for the loss of just two wickets with Alex Blackwell and Leah Poulton making the bulk of the runs.
Defending champions in both the WNCL and WT20, the Lend Lease Breakers currently sit in third position on both competition ladders but have played one less game than all the other teams in the WNCL, and two less matches in the WT20.
Their next assignment is a tough one with matches against Victoria in two weeks’ time at Blacktown International Sportspark (November 8-10).
