After a start to the 100 WBBL matches club just three days back, Brisbane Heat Captain Jess Jonassen today gets two of her Australian teammates, Beth Mooney and Lauren Smith joining her in the club.
It was a day worth celebrating for the Number one ranked Women’s T20I batter, Beth Mooney, as she made her 100th WBBL a special one with yet another player of the match knock scoring 78 off 53 balls against the Adelaide Strikers, guiding the Perth Scorchers to a victory and thus, a WBBL Finals berth. There is more to this celebration as she reached the 1000 runs mark representing the Scorchers. This being her second 1000 run contribution for a WBBL team having scored the same for Brisbane Heat with whom she played 75 matches and won two titles, makes her the first WBBL player to score the 1000 runs mark for two teams.
The all-time leading run-scorer who leads the tally for this season as well with 497 runs, Mooney has a total of 3624 runs at an average nearing 50 in the league.
A report by The Australian, shares Mooney’s reaction to her achievement, she says, “It’s not something I thought I’d be doing, playing WBBL cricket, to play 100 straight is something really exciting and probably showing my age a little bit as well.”
“I’ve been fortunate enough to win a couple of titles in that time and jump ship to the Scorchers (who have made) feel really welcome here.”
“Having a coach in my corner like Shelley Nitschke, I don’t worry about too much … She’s been a wonderful addition in my WBBL career.”
Representing Sydney Thunder, Lauren Smith is the third addition to the club after she got to the field for her 100th match today against the Melbourne Renegades. Smith has spent the majority of her WBBL days representing Sydney Sixers where she was signed for the 2015-16 session and contributed till the last edition after which the defending champions brought her.
It was unfortunate for Smith not to get a chance either with the ball or with the bat in the match, but she did contribute well on the field catching the ball to dismiss Carly Leeson. However, the major upset not just for her but for every Thunder player and the fans was the destroyed hope to the knockouts even after a record-breaking unbeaten 114 by India’s Smriti Mandhana.
Excellent show of cricket by Team India’s T20I Captain and Vice-Captain at the #WBBL today 😃
👉 Harman scored 81 not out in just 55 balls
👉 Smriti smashed 114 not out in just 64 Balls#WBBL07 pic.twitter.com/b1TfaJGPHt— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) November 17, 2021
Nevertheless, we have got three Australians to the 100-game milestone in just a matter of three days and hope to see some more with Alyssa Healy just two games away and then a good list of those at 97 following her.
Congratulations Mooney and Smith!!
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