WBBL Preview: “Keyneses Willing to Be ‘Bold’ to Climb the Ladder”

WBBL|09 result: Sixth (6 wins, 7 losses, 1 no result)

WBBL | 10th composition: Nicola Carey, Zoe Cook, Heather Graham, Ruth Johnston, Liesel Lee (South Africa), Hayley Silver-Holmes, Tabatha Saville, Amy Smith, Lauren Smith, Molly Strano, Rachel Trenaman, Chloe Tryon (South Africa), Elise Villani, Callie Wilson, Danny Wyatt-Hodge (England). Substitute players: Susie Bates (New Zealand)

Inputs: Lauren Smith (Thunder), Chloe Tryon (Sixers), Danny Wyatt-Hodge (Scorchers), Callie Wilson, Susie Bates (Sixers), Zoe Cook

Outputs: Naomi Stalenberg (The Departed), Maisie Gibson (Stars), Shabnim Ismail (Thunder), Bryony Smith, Emma Manix-Geeves, Julia Cavanaugh

Possible Best XI: Danny Wyatt-Hodge, Liesel Lee (week), Elise Villani (c), Heather Graham, Nicola Carey, Chloe Tryon, Ruth Johnston, Lauren Smith, Molly Strano, Amy Smith, Hayley Silver-Holmes

Player Availability: The Hurricanes will lose Danny Wyatt-Hodge and Chloe Tryon for the England-South Africa international in mid-November. However, the island nation has already signed New Zealand international Susie Bates to replace Wyatt-Hodge. Local player Rachel Trenaman will be sidelined this season with a knee injury but the Hurricanes are hopeful Amy Smith will get more game time this campaign after injury setbacks.

Inside conversation with Hurricanes coach Jude Coleman

After missing out on the WBBL|09 final, Coleman said her team was focused on “backing ourselves” and taking more ownership of the game to give them a better chance of winning this season.

The Hurricanes’ mixed record in the WBBL comes despite Tasmania’s dominance in the WNCL, where the state has won the last three titles with Hurricanes players Nicola Carey, Elise Villani, Molly Strano, Heather Graham, Liesel Lee, Hayley Silver-Holmes and Lauren Smith . in the last victory.

Coleman said having international players compete is always a “step forward” but added she wants her players to maintain their individual style and hopefully the results will come.

“I think in the past we’ve fallen into that trap a little bit and been a little confused about what kind of players we want to be. This year we really sold the idea of ​​just playing on our brand. cricket and we will find the right role for that in the team,” she said.

“Then just go out there, enjoy it and have fun. Will it work? You never know. It’s a quality competition so we’ll just try our best and try to compete when we can and fight as hard as we can.” Maybe.”

While a strong core of players from the Tasmanian Championship side remain at the club, the team will be bolstered by the inclusion of top batter Danny Wyatt-Hodge and all-rounder Chloe Tryon, who they picked up in the draft.

Choose one strategy: “We probably knew how it would play out in terms of who would keep their players. We were hoping that the Sixers wouldn’t have enough money for Sophie Ecclestone, but it didn’t work out. It was very clear which teams would retain the players we were looking for. So the strategy behind it was more about the ninth pick and trying to eliminate as many teams as possible in the first round so that we have more people to choose from at the second pick.”

I choose Danny Wyatt-Hodge and Chloe Tryon: “We were thrilled to have Danny. We knew the Scorchers would obviously be able to keep her, but we were really hoping they’d keep Amy Jones instead. We are very happy that Danny will be with us. She is an explosive top-class hitter. You know she has a lighter lineup, but she can hit the ball hard and scores freely. We really like that style of play so we’re really excited to have her with us and obviously she’s an absolute weapon on the field as well so she’s a great addition to our line-up of players.

“We felt like we needed a little more punch in our middle order. We probably haven’t had that, we have some good strikers but they probably haven’t suited us in the past. We We were looking to get some hitting power into that middle order, but we were also looking for a spin option that could bowl in all three phases and take the ball away from the right-hander. We’ve obviously lost Maisie Gibson to the Stars and while we’re hopeful Amy Smith will suit up for the WBBL, we felt we needed a bit of cover. It was difficult for us to let Shabs (Shabnim Ismail) go because she is a match winner.”

Signing of Liesel Lee as an international pre-qualifier: “We were hoping that Liesel would be a local player this season because she apparently moved her family to Hobart and has been living here for a little over two years now. We hoped that she would become a local player, but this did not happen, the timing did not quite work out. We always want to retain the players who bought our program. We chose Liesel and it was a pretty easy decision for us.”

Turning WNCL dominance into WBBL success: “This is a difficult question. It’s a step forward when you have international players. What we expect from our players this season is for them to simply back themselves and play the cricket that suits them as individuals, rather than try and be something different from who they are. I think in the past we’ve fallen a little bit into that trap and been a little confused about what kind of players we want to be. We just really sold the idea. this year just play your cricket and we will find a suitable role in the team. Then just go and enjoy it. You never know, it’s a quality competition. We’ll just try our best and try to compete when we can and fight as hard as we can.”

Young players to watch: “They’ll like the fact that I said “young” but she’s relatively new to the scene. Tabatha Saville is back on our list and she played back in the early days of the WBBL. She was on the list last year, but she’ll be around and around. I think it’s really interesting for me to see how she copes without putting too much pressure on her. We signed Callie Wilson, a young player who has been with the Tigers for the last few years and she is a young, fast girl who we definitely feel can play a role if we need a quick game.”

Key WBBL|10 matches: “Almost all of them are important at the moment. I think the teams have done a great job with their rosters. There are some really strong lists and I don’t know if any one can be singled out because there are so many good ones. I think we’ll probably look at teams that we’ll have to play twice. We have the defending two-time champions in the Adelaide Strikers and we’ll have to play them twice. play the Perth Scorches twice, who have two world class players in Sophie Devine and Beth Mooney. So any time you have to play these teams twice, you know it’s going to be a tough season, but we’re looking forward to it. these two games are probably the key ones we want to win.”

Improvement in WBBL|10: “We didn’t win enough big chances in games last year. We were in the game the whole time. We had a few games that we just lost and that’s where we’ve been the last few years. We’re always in contention and that’s the type of team we are, but we probably don’t win those big moments in games. Our goal this year is to win more of these moments. courage and willingness to lose them, which sounds crazy, but that’s our goal, I think that’s how we’ll turn things around this season.”

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