BDCA women’s: Leschenault claim first first-grade premiership with eight-wicket grand final win over Marist

Leschenault’s women’s first-grade side claimed the club’s first Bunbury and Districts Cricket Association premiership in either top grade on Sunday, defeating Marist by eight wickets in the grand final at Leschenault Recreation Ground. The Blues did well to recover from some early trouble at 7-57 and put a total of 9–113 on the scoreboard but the Green Caps cruised home in the chase, winning with 55 balls to spare. A loss in the season decider brought an end to a brilliant Blues run through the finals which saw the home and away season’s fourth-placed finishers win both the elimination and preliminary finals. Leschenault’s Ella Harrison claimed player of the match honours for a brilliant all-round effort in which the young gun all but won the game for her side with a power-packed 52 from 44 deliveries after giving away only 15 runs in a six-over spell with the ball. Harrison had plenty of support on the day, with Country XI star Hollie Perkin taking 2-21 from six overs before making 26 not out from 28 balls and Meriam Iawila (3-24 from six overs) and Alexzandra Jackson (2-24 from six overs) forming a potent bowling combination. Marist needed to come up with early wickets in the second innings to have any hope of defending their modest total and found one when Ava Dodds bowled Emma Jamieson for five. Harrison started in patient fashion, not scoring from her first seven deliveries, but then unleashed with a booming off drive which raced to the boundary and quickly followed up with two more fours. Shakira Parsons (21 from 40 balls) played an able supporting hand in a 46-run second-wicket partnership until the opener was bowled by Emily Wilson. But that only brought the competition’s leading run-scorer Perkin to the crease, who promptly combined with Harrison in a match-winning 53-run third-wicket stand at a run rate better than a run a ball. With scores tied in the 21st over, Harrison launched a straight six back down the ground to seal the premiership in some style. In the first innings, Iawila and Jackson made a tidy start with the ball for the hosts, knocking over Marist openers Zoe Buck and Jess Clarke in their opening spells to leave the Blues at 2-25. Perkin was introduced into the attack in the ninth over and had an immediate impact, inducing Ava Dodds to edge through to wicketkeeper Ann Martin with her first delivery and bowling Kelly Bastow shortly after. More wickets for Iawila and Jackson plunged the Blues further into the mire until No.3 Kayleigh Lynch finally found a partner in Katie Ernst, with the pair combining for a 45-run eighth-wicket stand which got their side back into the game. Lynch’s resistance ended on 40 from 85 deliveries when Harrison came forward from point to take a brilliant diving catch before Ernst was run out for 22 from 32 balls from a direct hit by Emma Jamieson in the final over, putting an exclamation point on a brilliant Leschenault fielding effort.