Women’s Big Bash, WBBL news: Bridget Patterson reveals the secret behing her stunning boundary catch
As the WBBL heads into a bumper weekend, Adelaide Strikers’ nimble fielder Bridget Patterson reveals the truth behind her Round 1 boundary catch that stunned the cricket world.
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Bridget Patterson’s juggling boundary catch last weekend will go down as one of the best catches in Women’s Big Bash League history, but the Adelaide Striker has revealed it was no fluke.
Last Saturday, the Strikers were playing reigning champions Sydney Thunder, with Adelaide’s bowlers on top heading into the penultimate over, when Thunder’s English import Issy Wong launched a ball for six.
But standing on the boundary was Patterson, who plucked the ball out of the air with her outstretched right hand, but as she did, realised she was about to step on the rope, so threw the ball back up in the air, stepped over the rope to compose herself and then hopped back into play again where she casually took the catch.
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Cool as you like from Bridget Patterson 😎🔥
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) October 16, 2021
(via @StrikersWBBL) pic.twitter.com/PIic9ATWBy
For Patterson, who has 34 catches from her 86 WBBL games (equal fifth for most catches in competition history), this catch is “by far the best” she’s taken … except for the catch she took the weekend prior playing for her club cricket side, Kensington, in Adelaide’s Premier Cricket.
“This is actually really bizarre, but the weekend before, I played club cricket and obviously in club cricket, not all grounds have ropes, so normally we’re playing with a coned boundary, so I’ve taken an identical catch to this one the weekend before and there’s been a couple of spectators from the opposition team standing behind me.
“So I’ve caught this and I’ve given a little bit of celebration – more than I did on the TV – and they’re yelling out to me: ‘That’s six! That’s six!’.
“And I felt pretty sh*t in the moment, because I’ve only got cones to go off … I’m being heckled in club cricket.”
A “big debacle in the middle” ensued, with umpires questioning Patterson.
“The umpires have come over and said to me, ‘Do you think it was out?’ and I said, ‘Yes, of course’ … but then I was just like: ‘Oh, OK, if these people are heckling me from the sidelines then fine, call it six, I’m only going off what I can see.”
The West Torrens batter ended up walking.
And then, fate decided to test Patterson again, and again she succeed with her signature cool head.
But one of the most charming parts of Patterson’s stunning WBBL catch was her nonchalant, almost non-existent celebration: no smile, just a simple dip of the head and a raise of the ball.
“As soon as I took the catch, I was like: ‘This is actually identical to last weekend’ … I guess that’s where my non-celebration came from, because what came into my brain was: ‘Oh, well, there you go, I hope (those hecklers) are watching this game because I’ve done it again’,” the 27-year-old said.
“It was pretty cool to know it wasn’t a fluke.”
But Strikers captain Tahlia McGrath said the team wanted better celebrations of their nimble fielder.
“She gave us nothing with the celebration, so that’s something she needs to work on,” McGrath said jokingly.
“But we see her do those catches and fielding efforts all the time. So from my point of view, it’s: ‘What’s the batter’s strength? Get Bridget in the hotspot’, because we know she’s going to pull off some screamers.”
The Strikers take on Hobart Hurricanes on Saturday morning in Launceston, the first of four matches to be played in a bumper weekend of Women’s Big Bash League.
Adelaide heads into the game with two wins from its two games, while the Hurricanes have one win from three games.
Patterson said to expect more classic catches across the league, with teams taking catching practice very seriously.
“But you have a bit of fun with it at training,” she said.
“It comes back to when you’re younger and you’re diving into a pool taking classic catches with a tennis ball.
“It’s the same with us now at trainings, we love doing that sort of stuff. And it’s good to see who can take the best one at training too.”
SATURDAY GAMES
* Strikers v Hurricanes, Invermay Park, Launceston, 10.15am
* Stars v Heat, Invermay Park, Launceston, 2pm
* Thunder v Sixers, University of Tasmania, Launceston, 3.40pm
* Scorchers v Renegades, University of Tasmania Stadium, Launceston, 7.05pm
***Please note, all times local***
RENEGADES RALLY AROUND INJURED STAR
Melbourne Renegades captain Sophie Molineux admits it was “tough” to come to terms with the news that star bowler Georgia Wareham would miss the remainder of WBBL|07 but the Renegades say she is still a chance to line up in Australia’s international fixtures early next year.
Wareham went down injured during the Renegades’ loss to the Adelaide Strikers on Wednesday before scans confirmed the worst news possible.
The leg-spinner ruptured the ACL in the same knee she had reconstructed following an AFL injury during her adolescence.
Molineux said Wareham’s absence left a big hole in the side.
“It’s pretty tough news. Georgia’s the heart and soul of the Renegades and she’s a very good mate of mine as well,” she said on Friday. “To see her go down like that, it wasn’t very nice for anyone watching.”
However, Molineux said Wareham was still having an impact around Renegades’ camp.
“In true ‘Wolfie’ spirit, she’s always up and about and she’s been great around the group still. We’re all trooping around her and she’s tracking along okay,” she said.
Cricket Australia says it will provide an update on Wareham’s condition “in due course”.
A source at the Renegades told NCA NewsWire that medical staff had yet to determine whether Wareham would need a full reconstruction and that the injury was continuing to be monitored.
Wareham has travelled with the Renegades from Hobart to Launceston, where the side will play its next three games. Depending on whether her knee is reconstructed, the Renegades say Wareham is still a chance to line up for the Women’s World Cup from March next year.
Wareham’s Ashes hopes are in doubt as well. In the absence of veteran spinner Jess Jonassen, Wareham played all but one of the recent matches against India but she appears at long odds to add to her international tally in the multi-format series against England this January and February.
Molineux was confident the Renegades had the bowling stocks to account for Wareham’s absence.
“All our girls sitting out are bowlers, so that’s probably a good start,” she said.
“Ella Hayward’s a spinner and we’ve got a couple of quicks there as well, so we’ll have a look at the pitch and assess and see what happens from there.”
The Renegades meet the Perth Scorchers on Saturday before doing battle with the Sydney Sixers the following day.
Both fixtures will be played at the University of Tasmania Stadium in Launceston.
STAR’S PLANS ROCKED BY CRUEL INJURY DIAGNOSIS
Georgia Wareham’s hopes of playing in the upcoming Ashes series and the Women’s World Cup are all but diminished, after scans confirmed she ruptured her ACL during the Melbourne Reneagdes’ WBBL match against the Adelaide Strikers at Blundstone Arena.
It’s horrible news for the 22-year-old, as the injury rules her out of the remainder of the WBBL season.
Given ACL injuries take several months to recover from, her status for the Ashes series in January and February as well as the Women’s World Cup in March and April is in serious doubt.
The severity of the injury was confirmed by Australian team doctor Pip Inge, who also revealed the ACL tear occurred in the same knee that Wareham previously injured.
“Georgia has sustained a left knee ACL injury; she had an ACL rupture on the same knee at the age of 14 whilst playing AFL which was reconstructed using a synthetic (LARS) ligament,” Inge said.
“Whilst in the field yesterday she had an instability episode of the left knee resulting in a rupture of the graft.
“As a result she will be unavailable for the remainder of the WBBL season.
“Cricket Australia and Cricket Victoria medical staff are working in consultation with Georgia on the longer term management plan.”
The injury occurred when Wareham fell over awkwardly when trying to change direction in the field midway through the Strikers’ innings.
Wareham was on the turf for a number of minutes as she was tended to, before leaving the field.
Wareham, a leg spinner, would have been a heavy favourite to have been picked in the squad for the Women’s World Cup next year.
She made her ODI debut for Australia in 2018 against Pakistan, and has played 23 games for the side. The youngster also made her Test debut last month in Australia’s series against India.
WBBL OPENING SMASHES RATINGS RECORDS
The WBBL’s cracking start to a new season has produced a record-breaking opening weekend for Fox Cricket as the women’s game continues to grow at a rapid rate.
Fox Cricket’s first five games of the season had an average audience of 67,000, up 131% year on year, with 90,000 tuning in for the Thunder and Strikers clash on Saturday making it the most watched stand-alone WBBL regular season game of all time.
The blockbusting start to the season is a promising sign as Fox look to broadcast every WBBL game live this season for the first time.
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“The WBBL produced some cracking matches over the weekend and to break those rating records is a fantastic start to the season,” General Manager of Fox Cricket Matt Weiss said.
Fox Cricket expert Mel Jones was blown away by the standard of play witnessed over the opening five games.
“It’s obvious after the first weekend of matches that the standard has lifted once again with the presence of quality international players driving our domestic talent to perform at a higher level,” she said.
“There was a lot of uncertainty and limited preparation with lockdowns so for teams to come out and play such high-quality cricket, it was very impressive. Bring on the rest of the season.”
My promise: The Sixers star driven by World War II hero
When Emma Hughes promised her late grandfather she would one day play cricket for Australia, the World War II hero’s reply remains her driving force.
“I’ll hold you to it.”
There is something powerful about an athlete motivated by something deeper than themselves, and the exciting Sydney Sixers fast bowler is a powerful example.
Hughes carries around with her the dog tag Hilary Hughes had to identify him when he fought as a 21-year-old soldier in the fourth infantry battalion, in some of the most bitterly fought battles of the New Guinea campaign.
Hilary Hughes died in 2014 at the grand old age of 92, but his memory lives on in his granddaughter’s determined mission to ultimately fulfil the promise she made to him.
“When I was younger I promised to him that I was going to make it to play for Australia. He was like, ‘I’ll hold you to it,’” said Hughes, who a month short of her 21st birthday is almost the same age as her pop was when he went to war.
“He used to come and watch and support my brother and I at pretty much every game. He was always super proud when we played together.
“I’ve always wanted to play for Australia, but (that promise) is something that’s holding me to it.
“When I go into playing games I am going to work really hard to be out there on the field and then one day if I do make it to Australia, I know he’ll be watching.”
Already, Hughes is a young star who has come the long way to professional cricket via the boys and men’s competitions she grew up playing in hailing from Dubbo in country NSW.
After making her debut in last summer’s WBBL, the right-armer now has a chance to cement her place in the Sixers attack as the magenta outfit play Hobart in their second fixture on Saturday at Blundstone Arena.
Hughes has benefited from an off-season training with the likes of Alyssa Healy and Lauren Cheatle and after a childhood enthralled by her pop’s war stories, she now has some tales of her own to share.
“Every time I visited him, I learnt more and more about his experiences,” said Hughes.
“He had a few near-death experiences up there. He told me about the time a bullet missed him, only because he’d dropped a sugar and bent down to pick it up.
“One of my favourites though — and it’s because of the way he told it — was the time he was on a boat and a bullet went through the bottom side of his slouch hat and went out the other side. It just whizzed past his head.
“It’s amazing but it was also super funny. He was a bit of a character.”
If Hughes is able to fulfil her promise, her Australian cricket cap would take pride of place on the mantle alongside Hilary’s bullet punctured slouch hat.
A big start to the WBBL, would bring her another step closer to her dream.
“I think the nerves are gone a little bit (having debuted last summer). There’s no more first game jitters,” Hughes said.
“I know what I need to do and what it feels to be out there. I feel I’m more prepared now. I’m definitely going to give it more of a crack to try and stay in the team for the whole tournament.”
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