By Helen Maynard-Casely

So we return to Cricket Central NSW to see NSW breakers take on Queensland Fire for the second match of round 5 of the WNCL. Whispy cirrus clouds skirted the blue sky in a vast contrast to Tuesday’s conditions. Temperatures were set to rise to 37 degrees, which triggered the extra drink break allowances.

Queensland skipper Redmayne again won the toss, but this time decided to have a bat. Queensland had made two changes to their team from Tuesday – Ruby Strange and Nicola Hancock out of the side to make way for Lily Bassingthwaighte and Charli Knott, the latter just back from India.

Queensland batting plans were soon in tatters though, with Lauren Cheatle forcing Georgia Redmayne to nick a delivery to the waiting hands of Anika Learoyd in the slips for a second ball duck in sharp contrast to her century the game before. Cheatle followed this up in her next over by causing Chali Knott to edge a ball, which found the hands of Sarah Coyte at gulley. Leaving Queensland 2/6 in only the third over.

Jess Jonassen joined Mikayla Wrigley at the crease and had to dig in to struggle through the powerplay, with Cheatle continuing to bowl particularly well. Tension lifted as Wrigley managed to get a classic cover drive to the boundary to get her first runs after facing her 20^th ball. The batters staged a recovery of sorts until the 21^st over when Cheatle made a lot of ground to catch Jonassens’ shot off of Frankie Nicklin’s bowling. Nicklin paired well with Sam Bates during the middle overs to really hold back the run rate. A turn of the screw in the 33^rd over was when Nicklin’s bowling took two wickets. First Wrigley, who had shown some resolve, but was stumped going for a big shot to bring up her 50, and had to walk back to the seats with 46 runs. A few balls later Lucy Bourke was out LBW. From here the NSW bowlers didn’t allow for any of the remaining batters to get much of an innings, the run rate fell and slower balls in particular plagued the batters.

NSW breakers captain Lauren Cheatle delivers a ball, she finished her 10 overs after taking 4 wickets and earned player of the match. Image credit Andy Casely

Queensland struggled to 188 runs for the loss of the last wicket in the 47^th over. Tight bowling from all the NSW meant there were good performances all round, Coyte conceded a miserly 20 runs for her 7.4 overs, and Cheatle took 4 wickets in all, only giving up 32 runs for her 10 over campaign.

As the cicadas screamed in the sun, NSW openers Tahlia Wilson and Alyssa Healy strode out to the crease, looking relaxed and hoping not to have to tax themselves too much in the heat to reach the 189 run target. But plans started to go awry in only the 5th over when Healy chipped the ball to the waiting Bonnie Berry at fine leg. This set the scene for a batting innings where, like Queensland, most got a few runs on the board but no-one was able to get a big score. Ellyse Perry went for 23, Katie Mack went for 24 and when Annika Learoyd was run out for 25 the chase began to look on shaky ground at 6 wickets down for 134 runs. Maitlan Brown and Sarah Coyte managed to settle the NSW a bit, by building a 41 run 7th wicket partnership, which included an impressive 6 for Coyte against the wind. The wind had probably aided the loopy spinners, Jonassen, Knott and Grace Parsons as Queensland kept with spin to slow down the NSW run accumulation.

NSW batter Sarah Coyte looks on as Queensland celebrate her wicket, Ruby Strange the substitute field taking the catch. Image credit Andy Casely

Brown and Coyte looked as though they were going to get NSW over the line, only for them both to get out with 24 runs still needed. Brown chipped a ball off Berry’s bowling that found the keeper’s gloves, with Coyte caught off the next over by substitute fielder Ruby Strange at gully. A mix up between Cheatle and Nicklin resulted in Nicklin being run out a few balls later – leaving the Breakers needing 14 runs for their last wicket and spectators chomping their fingernails. Sam Bates worked with captain Cheatle to hold their nerves, against excellent death bowling to creep towards the total, which was reached when Bates squeezed a shot through behind herself to jog through for the last run. Cheatle was named player of the match and with 18 wickets in the season rises to the top of the wicket-taking table for the competition so far.

A successful round for NSW then, as they extended their lead at the top of the standings to 9 points over 2nd place Queensland with two games in hand. Queensland have a bye in the next round and will be nervously watching how South Australia and West Australia fare, as they could still catch them for the finals spot. NSW look pretty comfortable at the top, with one more win in their last four matches needed to secure a finals place.

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