The Women's Premier Cricket season divides into two separate competitions, a T20 and a One-Day competition.
Women’s Premier Firsts T20
Round 1 vs Dandenong:
Our Women’s Firsts commenced their season with a T20 against Dandenong at Beaumaris Secondary College, South Oval. Batting first Prahran put up 5/113 in 20 overs. Debutant Sarnsiree (Sunny) Plant top scored with an unbeaten 25. In reply, we got an early breakthrough with the run out of Jessica Bohn on the second ball of the chase. However, that early advantage was undone by former True Blue, and Irish international, Gaby Lewis who top scored with a 58 to guide the Panthers to a comfortable win. Maddie White and Lucy Page picked up one wicket each.
Prahran 5/113 in 20 overs (Plant 25*) lost to Dandenong 3/114 in 18.3 overs (White 1/19, Page 1/19) by 7 wickets
Round 2 vs Geelong
At Lawn Addicts Oval, South Barwon Reserve, Geelong won the toss and elected to bat first. Sunny Plant, sharing new ball duty with Anna O’Donnell, accounted for opener Amelie Munday early. A 78-run partnership between Annie Taylor and Aanliya Cheeran ensued before Madeline Waring trapped Cheeran in front. Jaide Anthony and Anna O’Donnell picked up the next two wickets and two run outs followed to keep Geelong to 6/122 in 20 overs.
With Mia Perrin away on Spring T20 Challenge duty with the Melbourne Stars, Jaide Anthony and Merinda Hale began the chase on a slow wicket. Cheeran accounted for Hale and Jennifer Taffs and, with 47 on board, Lucy Page steadied the ship in the company of Anthony until the latter was trapped in front by Jess Field. Some more resistance by Page and Plant before Plant departed for 12 with still 38 to get off less than 4 overs. Enter Elizabeth Cormack who, after a sedate start, launched an attack on the Cats bowling, striking boundaries off Field and Cheeran. With Amelie Munday introduced into the attack in the 20th over, Page took a single off the first ball to allow Cormack to finish things off and with 1 run to get off 2 balls, Munday bowled a wide that sealed the win for the True Blues.
Geelong 6/122 (O’Donnell 1/17, Plant 1/18, Waring 1/20, Anthony 1/24) lost to Prahran 4/123 in 19.4 overs (Cormack 28*, Page 23*, Hale 20) by 6 wickets
Round 3 vs Plenty Valley
After the game against Geelong, we ventured to Kardinia Park West to take on the Plenty Valley Bats. Captain Jen Taffs won the toss and elected to bat first on what was a low-scoring wicket. Our top order of Anthony, Hale, and Page struggled to clear the fence but Plant and Cormack put up some resistance with a 56 run stand for the fourth wicket. Plant attacked the bowling to score at more than run-a-ball while Cormack was more conservative, given the nature of the wicket. Both hit three boundaries before being dismissed, and with Taffs falling on the last ball of the innings, we chalked up 6/113.
Anna O’Donnell soon capitalised on the slowness of the wicket to get the dangerous Umasha Thimeshani caught by Taffs for just 1. After Maddie White and keeper Mikayla Collins combined to run out Aryahi Khadilkar, former Sri Lankan international Nipuni Hansika attacked our bowling to strike four boundaries before Cormack got her caught behind. This was followed by two quick wickets to Lucy Page before Rituja Talekar and Imogen Daldorph put on 37 to take the Bats past the 90-mark. Madeline Waring trapped Talekar in front in her first over. Plant bowled the 19th over and conceded a boundary off the last ball that took the Bats to 100 and with 14 runs required off the last over, Waring kept things tight to concede just 3 and dismiss Meththananda, leaving Plenty Valley at 7/103 to give us a 10-run victory.
Prahran 6/113 (Plant 36, Cormack 18) defeated Plenty Valley 7/103 (Waring 2/6, Page 2/17) by 10 runs
Round 4 vs Ringwood
It was not our day in the east when we lost to the Ringwood Rams at Jubilee Park and later Box Hill Mustangs at Box Hill City Oval. At Jubilee Park, we managed only 7/102 in the face of some tight bowling by the Rams. Except for Merinda Hale (31) and Jaide Anthony (25), no other batters managed more than 11 runs each.
In reply, we managed to dismiss former True Blue Tiana Atkinson early with 25 on the board, but another former True Blue Samara Dulvin (44) and Rams skipper Una Raymond-Hoey (41) combined to put us out of the game with a comfortable 9-wicket win.
Prahran 7/102 (Hale 31, Anthony 25) lost to Ringwood 1/105 in 13.5 overs (Page 1/19)
Round 5 vs Box Hill
After the Ringwood game, we headed to the nearby Box Hill City Oval to take on the Mustangs for the afternoon game. Mia Perrin came into the XI for this game and we elected to bat first on another low-scoring wicket.
The previous game at Box Hill had been a low-scoring win for Box Hill against Carlton and it was expected that the team batting first had an advantage. Merinda Hale and Perrin opened the batting and made 13 and 15 respectively. Page, Taffs, Ellen Williams and Cormack all fell for single digit scores, but it was Anthony (36) in the company of young Eva Baird (27) who took us past the three-figure mark to finish with 6/118.
Box Hill started strongly, putting on 82 for the first wicket courtesy of Yashoda Senarathne (54) and Zoe Griffiths (36 no). By the time we dismissed their number three, Imogen Gentry, in the 18th over, the Mustangs were already 2/113 and Griffiths finished things off with a boundary in the same over.
Prahran 6/118 (Anthony 36*, Baird 27*) lost to Box Hill 2/120 (Baird 1/12, Page 1/20) by 8 wickets
Round 6 vs Essendon Maribyrnong Park
Match abandoned due to rain at Aberfeldie Park.
Round 7
BYE
Round 8 vs Carlton
Match abandoned due to rain at Righetti Oval.
Round 9 vs Melbourne
The final home and away round of the T20 leg of the competition at the Albert Ground and after three consecutive Saturdays of washouts we had excellent weather today. Melbourne won the toss and chose to bat first.
Melbourne scored 7/146 in their 20 overs, led by a half-century from Georgia Prestwidge (59). Openers Amy Yates (5) and Ella Hayward (5) fell to Lucy Page while Waring got Hayleigh Brennan (22) stumped and Cormack got Annecy Homberg (10) to hole out to Anna Burgon at long-on. Olivia Henry removed Prestwidge and Ella Stallwood and Diya Redhu claimed Liv Baker.
Henry (20) and Perrin (20) started the chase strongly until the latter fell to a stunning reflex catch by Amy Yates at cover for 20. Henry was then trapped in front by Erika Quinn in the ninth over with the score on 61 and 86 more to get. Taffs (55 no) and Page then combined for an 85-run stand before Page fell to Ruby Cullinan for 41 with scores tied. Taffs, who struck the winning run, had earlier capitalised on a Prestwidge over that had two no-balls each of which were dispatched for a 6 and a 4 to yield 12 runs off a single delivery.
Melbourne 7/146 (Henry 2/16, Page 2/29, Cormack 1/12, Waring 1/19, Redhu 1/28) lost to Prahran 3/147 in 17.2 overs (Taffs 55*, Page 41) by 7 wickets
Women’s Premier Firsts One-Day
While October was a month of T20s to mark our season start, in November we began the One-Day leg of the season with a bye in Round 1.
Round 2 vs Box Hill, 3 November, Righetti Oval
After winning the toss we chose to bat first on a pitch that looked to offer some assistance for spinners. Olivia Henry (26) started strongly leading the way with three boundaries in the first two overs. Mia Perrin (5) pitched in with one in the third over but was dismissed 3 balls later by Danielle Montague. Henry continued in the company of Merinda Hale who was steadily building her innings until she was caught behind off Indigo Gentry.
Former Sri Lankan captain Shashikala Siriwardene then struck at regular intervals for the next five wickets at one end, watched on by skipper Jen Taffs at the other. Zoe Griffiths struck to remove Eva Baird and Siriwardene got her sixth, a return catch from Madeline Waring to leave us reeling at 9/93. In walked Anna O’Donnell who held up one end to score 1 off 44 balls while Taffs did the scoring, working her way to 83 and a 71 run partnership to take us past 150 to finish with 164.
Anna O’Donnell led our bowling attack to remove the Box Hill openers Isabel White and Vaishnavi Munukutla. Zoe Griffiths showed some aggression scoring at more than run-a-ball but an outstanding fielding effort by Henry and O’Donnell led to her run out. Sunny Plant then struck twice in quick succession to remove Maddie Wright and Indigo Gentry and then followed a 37 run stand between Katherine Dekel and Shashikala that was ultimately halted by Plant getting Dekel with a caught and bowled.
At 99, Danielle Montague fell to Plant for the latter’s fourth wicket and nine runs later, Emilia Wilson was run out by Jaide Anthony. Siriwardene (44) motored on at one end and threatened to take the game away from us but was eventually bowled by Eva Baird. The last wicket pair of Ashling O’Farrell and Jasmine Gouldson patiently batted on to reach 156, just 9 shy of the target when Henry struck to get the latter caught behind and give us the win.
Prahran 164 in 38.1 overs (Taffs 83, Henry 26) defeated Box Hill 156 in 48.2 overs (Plant 4/30, O’Donnell 2/22, Baird 1/17, Henry 1/28) by 8 runs
Round 3 vs Melbourne, 10 November, Righetti Oval
Back to Righetti Oval to take on the defending champions Melbourne in a Grand Final rematch. Melbourne won the toss and chose to bat first.
A strong bowling performance helped dismiss the Demons for 173. Anna O’Donnell struck in the first over to remove Ella Hayward and not too long after, Hasrat Gill with the first ball of her second over. Sunny Plant on new ball duty removed Rhiann O’Donnell leaving the Dees at 3/16 in the sixth over. Amy Yates and Zoe Samuel then put on 77 runs before Eva Baird struck to get Yates caught behind. Ten runs later Samuel top-edged a Lucy Page bouncer behind the wicket where Mia Perrin plucked an outstanding catch. Baird then came back to remove Hayleigh Brennan after which Indigo Noble and Teagan Parker resisted to take the Dees past 150. Parker holed out to Plant at cover off Baird and the rest of the batting managed just 18 more runs before Ribhya Syan castled Erika Quinn to dismiss the Dees for 173.
Mia Perrin took first strike this time and in the company of Olivia Henry took on the Dees bowling to take us to 79 in the 16th over when Henry fell to Hasrat Gill for 41. A brief scare ensued when Merinda Hale and Lucy Page were dismissed in quick succession before Sunny Plant (21) anchored one end while Perrin attacked at the other to take us closer to the target. Plant fell with the score at 4/170 in the 34th over with the end in sight. Skipper Jen Taffs picked 2 off the last ball of the 34th to help Perrin, who was sitting on 98, to come back on strike. Just a single in the next over took her to 99 and it was only fitting that Taffs played out the remainder of the 35th over to allow Perrin to complete her ton and also get us the win which she did in the first ball of the 36th.
Melbourne 173 in 45.5 overs (Baird 4/22, O’Donnell 2/20, Page 1/21, Plant 1/27, Syan 1/39) lost to Prahran 174 in 35.1 overs (Perrin 100*, Henry 41, Plant 21) by 6 wickets
Round 4 vs Ringwood, 17 November, Russell Lucas Oval
A promising start to the day with wonderful weather later turned a dampener when it started raining just as the players were taking the field. Incessant rains for the rest of the day resulted in abandonment of the game with points shared.
Upcoming Fixtures (all One-Dayers)
Dec 15, 2024 – vs Dandenong at Righetti Oval
Jan 19, 2025 – vs Carlton at Toorak Park
Jan 26, 2025 – vs Geelong at Toorak Park