Inside Sophie Day’s remarkable journey to the top of the WBBL
Sophie Day was not a spin bowling prodigy, yet somehow she’s dominated the WBBL and could soon show her skills on the world stage. TIM MICHELL details her journey to superstardom.
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Few will remember the day Sophie Day’s progression from part-time trundler to the top of the WBBL wicket-takers chart started.
The 25-year-old was not a spin bowling prodigy.
When she arrived at Plenty Valley, a club based in Melbourne’s outer-north, Day was a part-time medium pacer better known for her batting ability.
In her first summer, 2016-17, she bowled 10 overs of medium pace.
The next season she bowled 4.4 overs.
“We were having a pre-season net session in Thomastown and … I just said to her, ‘have you ever thought about bowling spin?’” Bats coach Adam Drinkwell recalled of the fateful moment he asked Day to switch disciplines.
“Because we didn’t have a spinner in our squad at that stage. From there we worked together on crafting some sort of action for her.”
Day will play her 50th WBBL game for Melbourne Stars on Friday, a match she will enter wearing the golden cap as one of the tournament’s leading wicket-takers.
In her last three matches she has taken 10 wickets, including a haul of 5-25, which included the prized scalps of Ellyse Perry, Ash Gardner and Suzie Bates.
It has been a remarkable journey from her early days at Plenty Valley where, under the guidance of former Test spinner Ray Bright, she began her education as a spin bowler.
“Once she got the basics of it, she just went and worked and worked and worked,” Drinkwell said.
“She’d … take any sort of advice she could and go away and work with it.”
By the start of the 2018-19 campaign, Drinkwell had seen enough to unleash Day as one of Plenty Valley’s main spinners.
There was no holding her back like the previous season when she was still learning the craft. The Bats welcomed Box Hill to Yarrambat on a Sunday in October. It was the first time Day’s diligence — and patience — paid off.
She took 2-23 from seven overs, removing top-four batters Amy Jennings and Isabella Weber. Her new life as a left-arm orthodox bowler was under way.
“The evolution of it has been quite quick,” Drinkwell said. “But, credit to her work ethic, it’s certainly right up there.”
Day ended the T20 rounds of that season with eight wickets, an average of 9.2 and the title of the Women’s Premier firsts player of the season.
By the time Australia hosted the T20 World Cup in 2020, Day was on the radar of state selectors in Victoria. She was doing everything in her power to make sure of that.
“It’s actually been crazy, to be honest,” Day said. “I was coming to the Junction (Oval) and I bowled for the Stars as a net bowler.
“Then the T20 World Cup was on that year and I came in, I signed up to every team. So I was a bit of a traitor.
“I went and bowled to all the teams: New Zealand, India, Australia. It’s something that I realised then, I really wanted to be around and I really tried to work as hard as I could to get there.”
She added: “I looked at a lot of the other left-arm spinners that are playing currently in the WBBL They’re people that I really look up to like Soph Molineux for the Renegades, Jess Jonassen for Brisbane Heat and Sophie Ecclestone for the Sydney Sixers.
“They’re people that (have) bowled in all facets of the game and it’s an area I really wanted to include; things like the surge and powerplay overs are something that I really tried to work on in my pre-season.”
Day could well find herself on the national selection radar soon.
Jess Jonassen is 31 and Molineux has not played since November, 2022 due to injury. The depth of left-arm spin bowling in Australia is being tested at a time when Day is putting her name up in lights.
“It’s something that everyone that runs out in the WBBL aspires to do and it’s something that, definitely, I do aspire to,” Day said.
Originally published as Inside Sophie Day’s remarkable journey to the top of the WBBL
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