It was a tale of two performances at Karen Rolton Oval, as the ACT Meteors opened their Women’s National Championship campaign with a pair of losses to South Australia in Adelaide.
In Sunday’s second match of the weekend, the bowlers stepped up with a much-improved performance, with Holly Ferling’s best-ever Meteors figures of 4-54 and Carly Leeson’s 2-38 keeping the Scorpions to 7/267 from their 50 overs after winning the toss and batting first.
Courtney Webb made 76 from 78 balls to anchor the Scorpions innings, which threatened to get away with a number of handy partnerships.
Opening bats Rebecca Carter and Kayla Burton, along with skipper Katie Mack all got starts in reply, but all three were dismissed inside 21 overs.
Losing wickets in clumps was an issue, losing 3/11 in the top order, and then the last 5/34 as SA bowled the Meteors out for 166 in the 40th over.
On Friday, the Meteors got their campaign off to a frustrating start, going down to the Scorpions by 7 wickets.
Sent in to bat first, the ACT got off to a reasonable start before a middle order collapse left them reeling at 5/50. Mack batted beautifully to rebuild the innings, compiling a very well-made 102-ball 95 not out.
With lower order support from Alisha Bates (43) and Angie Genford (35), the Meteors were able to post 219, a total that looked a long way away midway through the innings.
In reply, Bridget Patterson (51) and Emma de Broughe (77) opened up with a 142-run first wicket partnership for SA, which proved the perfect backbone for an easy run chase, with McGrath’s 42 very handy as the Scorpions cruised to a seven-wicket win in 39 overs.
‘Shim’ Sumona, Annie Wikman and Gabby Sutcliffe all picked up one wicket each.
Congratulations to new recruit, Paris Bowdler, who made her debut on Friday as wicketkeeper for the Meteors.
Bowdler is a wicket-keeper-batter who played for Prahran in Victorian Premier Cricket and was familiar to Renegades coaching staff through the ‘Renegades Recruit’ program. She played a crucial role in helping Victoria Country to the Grand Final of the Under-19 National Champs and was rewarded with Australia selection for the Under-19 T20 World Cup.
The Meteors next face the Tasmanian Tigers, hosting the reigning WNCL Champions in two home games at EPC Solar Park in Phillip on Sunday, 8 and Tuesday, 10 October.