WBBL off to crackerjack start with festival weekend at Junction Oval

All in all, the opening round of WBBL04 was crackerjack.

Sydney Thunder’s Lisa Griffith celebrates the wicket of Renegades batter Jess Duffin on the opening weekend of this year’s WBBL at Junction Oval. Picture: Getty Images

Studies. Cricket. Living away from home. All too much. Lisa Griffith was overwhelmed. She had to escape the big smoke. Change her life. She was bold enough to do it.

Chucked everything in. All of it. Took a job as a jillaroo at a remote Northern Territory cattle station. It was a two-hour drive from one end of the Lake Nash ranch to the other. She remembers how she felt up there. Small. This is where she has come from. Nowhere.

“When I was 18, I wasn’t handling Sydney very well,” Griffith said. “I had a little bit of depression and things like that. I decided that I needed to get away from Sydney and away from cricket and just have a bit of time away from it. I went up north … we had 80,000 cattle on that particular property, but it could carry anywhere up to 120,000 head. It was pretty dry. A lot of water there is from the bores. There’s a long way between water from the cattle and yourself. It’s kind of a different world.”

That was seven years ago. She had been a promising cricketer in Bathurst who had made a few state teams in the junior ranks. After five years in the outback, she returned to Bathurst. Went to university. The local men’s team, the Centennial Bulls, were short of players. She pitched in. Her first over back included “a fair few wides”, she once told cricket.com.au. But she ended up back in the women’s cricket scene. Now that there was one.

She landed a contract with Sydney Thunder last year. A fortnight ago, the Thunder extended her deal for two more years and yesterday, the 26-year-old was running round Junction Oval for the opening round of WBBL04.

Her pinpoint four-over spell of 1-20 in the Thunder’s six-wicket thumping of Melbourne Renegades might have meant little with the knowledge of where she had come from. Mentally, and physically.

“Lisa’s story is an inspirational one of resilience and character,” Thunder general manager Lee Germon said.

Four games were played in Melbourne on the weekend. And the winners were — the Melbourne Stars, Perth Scorchers, Adelaide Strikers and the Thunder.

Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry attacked the white ball like modern-day versions of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes. Lizelle Lee clubbed a whirlwind century after her breakfast of champions to make fools of the bookmakers and Sydney Sixers.

A Perth Scorchers spinner produced the best performance by a Heather Graham since the second Austin Powers movie. All in all, the opening round of WBBL was crackerjack.

Lee’s unbeaten 102 came off 56 balls as the Stars shocked the Sixers by seven wickets. She brought up her hundred with a six over long-on, fuelled by her bacon and eggs breakfast. Three sixes in all. Sixteen fours.

The Sixers capitulated following a dream start from Healy and Perry. When they combined for a 108-run opening partnership, they were paying $1.01 for a victory. When you have two superstars as openers, and when they both come off, it’s tempting for everyone to think the job is done. Teammates. The odds-makers. Healy carved 70 off 47 balls to continue her rich vein. Perry made 58. But the innings fell away as soon as they walked off and the total, as Lee proved, became more than gettable.

Australian captain Meg Lanning’s WBBL comeback innings came to nothing. Well, it did some to something. Eight. Opening for the Scorchers, Lanning swayed back, tried to punch one through cover, tickled the ball to wicketkeeper Georgia Redmayne and walked off without waiting to see if the umpire had heard or seen the nick. Lanning averaged a competition-leading 51.6 during her two years with the Melbourne Stars before missing last year’s competition after shoulder surgery.

Heather Graham took 3-25 before Lanning’s Southern Stars teammate Elyse Villani posted 58 as the Scorchers successfully chased 144 with six wickets and three balls to spare.