By Helen Maynard-Casely

With a number of international players returning to the fold, round 4 of the WNCL kicked off with two games. Down in Canberra, NSW emboldened with Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry in the squad for the first time since 2019 took on ACT. Though the stage for our theatre today was the other match – taking place at Allan Border Field in the city of Meanjin (Brisbane) an unbeaten Queensland Fire met a visiting South Australian side. So far in this competition Queensland have been ferocious, like last year, marching towards a finals place – having not only been unbeaten, but also picking up bonus points in half of the matches they have played in rounds one to three.

Allan Border field sits on the floodplain of the Brisbane river, so it is nestled between higher ground on one side and the Albion raceway to the other. The home of Queensland Cricket, it is a hive of activity, surrounded by outside and inside nets, and with two looming pavilions – built ‘Queenslander’ style. A very pleasant place to watch a very tense game of cricket – 5 star rating in the category of small grounds of Australia.

South Australia captain Jemma Barsby won the toss, and decided to have a bowl. Both teams were unchanged from their previous matches, which could not have been more different in outcome – South Australia coming off two losses away to WA, and Queensland having got the double win over Tasmania in Hobart.

The losses in Perth for SA were perhaps all the more surprising given the international-class of the bowling line up, retained for the visit to Queensland. Tahlia McGrath, having opted out of the WPL was joined by Megan Schutt and Darcy Brown all taking advantage of games before the India series. This trio joined by the ever-present Amanda-Jade Wellington certainly would have had the Queensland batters perhaps struggling to sleep last night. And so it proved the case – with the SA bowlers working their way through the Queensland batters without turning a hair. Lauren Winfield-Hill offered the most resistance, a stoic 33 runs put on for 58 balls – but she was trapped LBW by Barsby bowling right arm in the 24th over. Barsby had threaded in overs with the opening quicks to keep Queensland to just over 100 runs at this near half-way stage, but with 5 wickets still remaining the Fire would have still hoped for a good total.

But then they got Wello-ed. Not sure if there’s a better way to put it. Wellington had started her bowling spell the over before Winfield-Hill’s wicket, and the end of her spell was also the end of Queensland’s innings. Her deliveries forced three catches, including a particularly speccy low catch by Barsby at mid-off to remove Nicola Hancock. In her next over Wellington went one better and had Ruby Strange caught and bowled via a skied return. She finished off her fifer and the Queensland innings by bowling Grace Parsons, taking the top of her middle stump and barely even celebrating. A hush had fallen on the (reasonable) crowd at AB Field, Queensland bowled out in the 39th over for 180 runs.

AJ Wellington leads the SA team off the field after finishing the Queensland innings by bringing up her 5-wicket haul.

With 181 needed for victory South Australia got off to a terrible start, with Bridget Patterson stumped for a duck by lightning quick glove work from captain/keeper Georgia Redmayne in the first over. Patterson questioned the call, but the umpires sent her back to the pavilion. In fact, following on from the excellent day out for the South Australian bowlers – the Queensland opening bowlers Sianna Ginger and Bonnie Berry got the upper hand during the powerplay, both picking up 2 wickets each. McGrath being the last of these in the 10th over bowled by an inswinger delivered by Berry. After 10 over SA were 4/51 – whereas Queensland had been 2/51 at the same stage, and the Fire looked on track to take ten wickets to keep their season burning bright. The dangerous Courtney Webb was removed only two overs later, caught at gulley by Grace Parsons, her second catch at the position in the innings.

At this stage South Australian opener Emma de Broughe was probably thinking she was going to run out of partners before the total was reached. But joined at the crease by Barsby they set about digging in and accumulating a steady partnership. For 23 overs they toiled away, slowly stomping on the embers of the Queensland Fire’s bowling attack to wrestle the game away from them. The partnership ended at 103 runs when de Broughe was bowled by Hancock 71 runs off of 104 deliveries. In a day for bowlers it was AJ Wellington who brought up the target four overs later when she cracked a boundary to long on. South Australia crucially brought up the target before 40 overs, giving them an all-important bonus point as they make their bid to climb up the table. We’ll all convene again on Thursday for the second match up to see if Queensland can re-ignite to winning ways.

Helen (Crystallised Cricket) is a writer based in Dharug and Gundagarra country, and here is writing about a game played in Meanjin. She acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands that she writes from.