By Helen Maynard-Casely
On Saturday NSW Breakers secured their place in the WNCL final, and by Sunday evening with the wash-out in Canberra between ACT and SA that had become a home final to boot. They returned to the field today at Cricket Central to host Tasmania for the team in green’s final match of the competition this season.
NSW rookie Lucy Finn pushes the ball to the mid-wicket as she partnered with Sarah Coyte to save the NSW innings and build a defendable total.
NSW had one change, with Alyssa Healy returning to the Australian squad ahead of the one day matches against India, which brought Georgia Adams back into the Breakers side. Tasmania made no changes to the side from Saturday. NSW won the toss and decided to have a bat, and by over eight they were probably questioning if that was a good call. The overcast conditions played into Tasmania’s hands and an early swing was used devastatingly by Callie Wilson who picked off NSW’s top order batters. First Katie Mack who pushed a delivery high into the gloves of keeper Lizelle Lee, then Wilson trapped Anika Learoyd a few balls later on the pads. Tahlia Wilson was her namesake’s next wicket, when she edged a ball to the waiting keeper. Taswegian Kathryn Bryce joined the party in the next over when Claire Moore followed the ball round with her bat before it too went to the keeper. Georgia Adams and Maitlan Brown worked to steady the NSW innings, but they too were sent back to the benches with NSW having only 88 runs on the board.
With Breakers wickets looking like tumbling into the surf, the fresh faced Lucy Finn and veteran Sarah Coyte stood at the crease and saved the innings with a fantastic 128 run 7th wicket partnership. They worked hard for every run, and the eagerness of youth almost had Finn run out on a couple of occasions. They each passed 50 runs in the 44th over while the Tasmanian bowlers could only despair what plan to try next. Lucy Finn’s 6 lofted over mid off signaled that she was about to try and hit big, but as so often happens was caught two balls later. Coyte batted on, and finished the innings on 82 not out – giving NSW a defendable total of 274 after batting out their 50 overs. Of the Tasmanian bowlers, as well as the impact of Callie Wilson early on, Maisie Gibson had kept excellent economy throughout only giving away 30 runs for her 10 overs.
Tasmania’s batters got off to a better start compared to Saturday, and by the end of the powerplay were looking dangerous with both openers starting to hit out. Lizelle Lee had launched an ominous 6 into the stands, and NSW would have been starting to worry. But Finn followed up her day with the bat, when with the ball she took a wicket maiden by forcing Lee to chop the ball onto her stumps, restricting the batter to 22 runs. But this still left Rachel Trenaman at the crease, who was eager to stretch her lead over Katie Mack as top run scorer in the comp. Supported by Ruth Johnston, Trenaman started to build a partnership, and shot past 50 runs seemingly with ease. But then Sarah Coyte, struck with a beautiful delivery that cut in to take Trenaman’s leg stump. From here wickets fell steadily through a combination of bowling to plan and catches being taken. A particular turning point was when Coyte threw down the non-strikers stumps with a direct hit from backward point to run out the in-form batter Emma Manix-Geeves. A wagging tail principally of Maisie Gibson knocking the ball around for 45 runs for the 11th wicket was not enough to trouble the NSW defence, and Tasmania finished their innings 37 runs short. Sarah Coyte was rewarded for her allround heroics with bat, ball and fielding with the player of the match accolade for today.
NSW won’t plan for their home final just yet though, they still have one more round to compete in, away to South Australia where they will be hosted at the Adelaide Oval. South Australia, West Australia and Queensland will all be chasing that second finals spot over the next round, so each of the pairs of games will have implications for the standings. Tasmania, however, have now finished their 2025/26 WNCL season, and will be returning across the Bass Straight and considering new plans to take into the future.
Helen (Crystallised Cricket) is a writer based in Dharug and Gundagarra country, and here is writing about a game played on Dharug country. She acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands that she writes from.