New-look Victoria succumb to first loss of WNCL 2020-21 handing Western Australia a win

Victoria’s unbeaten run in WNCL 2020-21 season came to an end in their seventh match as a new-look side led by Elyse Villani in the absence of Australia international stars succumbed to a six-wicket defeat against Western Australia at the WACA in Perth on Thursday (March 18). This was Western Australia’s first win of the season from seven matches.



Opting to bat first, Victoria were off to a disastrous start losing four wickets inside the first 12 overs. Villani and Makinley Blows struggled to get moving even though they put on 27 in 7.5 overs. Blows was the first one to go when she was dismissed by Piepa Cleary for only six off 27 balls. With Taneale Peschel accounting for in-form Villani and Nicole Bolton castling Bhavisha Devchand before Cleary got rid of Anna Lanning, Victoria were reduced to 38 for 4 in 11.4 overs.



However, former Ireland international Kim Garth in the company of Nicole Faltum and Lucy Cripps took Victoria to 155 in 48.1 overs. Garth shared 30-run partnership with Faltum for the fifth wicket before adding 50 runs with Cripps for the seventh wicket. In the process, she hit her maiden WNCL fifty and was eventually dismissed for 51 by Peschel.



For Western Australia, Peschel was the most successful bowler with figures of 4 for 37, while Cleary, Bolton and Alana King picked up two wickets each.



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In the chase, Western Australia also stuttered losing three wickets for 57 in 10.5 overs including the big wicket of a good-looking Bolton for 27 with Cripps accounting for two wickets. From there, Mathilda Carmichael and Amy Edgar formed a partnership of 97 to guide them home to their first win of the season.



Edgar started the innings with a four off a free hit from Cripps and scored at an almost run-a-ball strike rate in an innings consisting of seven boundaries, while Carmichael started slowly and eased into the innings as it progressed. Both the batters scored 47 runs each, even though Edagar fell two runs away from the target, Carmichael finished the chase with a couple off Tess Flintoff in the 28^th over in the company of Megan Banting.



For Victoria, Cripps took two wickets for 25 from the two overs she bowled, while Sophie Day took one wicket.



Brief Scores: Victoria 155/10 in 48.1 overs (Kim Garth 51; Taneale Peschel 4/37) lost to Western Australia 156/4 in 27.1 overs (Mathilda Carmichael 47*, Amy Edgar 47; Lucy Cripps 2/25) by six wickets