Australia A women have been on a roll in the ongoing India A women’s tour of Australia. After playing a close game in the first T20, they were dominant in the second and third T20. What was even more spectacular from the hosts was that every new player who got the chance to play made it count. 

Leg spinner Grace Parsons and medium pacer Nicola Hancock replaced pacers Tayla Vlaemnick and Maitlan Brown in the second T20 and picked up seven wickets between them. Vlaemnick returned in the third T20 and was near unplayable, giving only six runs in her four overs. Meanwhile, Parsons impressed once again with a spell of 2/18. 

On the batting side of things, Tahlia Wilson batted flawlessly and was the leading run-scorer of the series with 142 runs in three innings. All in all, the depth of Australian women’s cricket was on great display during the three T20s, and McGrath double-clicked on it while talking about the Australian performances from the series. 

“That [the depth] has been the strength of Australian cricket. The amount of talent we have in domestic cricket is endless, and whenever people get opportunities in the A tour or the main side they really make the most out of those opportunities. 

It’s been a super fun tour for me, and these A girls have been able to learn, and we’ve played the way they wanna play. We have unearthed not some new players but people who’ve been doing it years in and years out, and now they are doing it in an Aussie A shirt,” the Australia A skipper said. 

“Tahlia Wilson has been unbelievable with the bat. Grace Parsons has hardly played a game of T20 at a professional level, but she came out and bowled amazingly brilliantly. Then you have the regular contributors who have done it in the BBL and have done it here as well. 

It’s really exciting for Australian cricket moving forward that we have so much talent coming through and so many people who can get that chance at the next level.”

She also mentioned how the emergence of the young leg spinner Parsons is great for Australian cricket, as along with the likes of Georgia Wareham, Alana King and Amanda Jade-Wellington, she forms a very high-quality leg spinning bank for Australia. Moreover, the craftiness of the Queensland and Brisbane Heat leg spinner impressed her the most. 

“Yeah, Parsons has been unreal for us. She is one that I hadn’t seen a lot of before the tour and the first time I faced in the nets I was surprised with the amount of turn she was getting. She was super accurate with her line and length, and she was able to create a really subtle, crafty change of deliveries.

From the game point of view, she missed out in game one, came back in game two and then picked up four straight away and created a real impact and a real influence. It was really cool. She wanted slips and aggressive fields, and I really loved it. 

From Australia’s point of view, leg spinners are so important in T20 cricket. We are really lucky to have Kingy, Wareham, Wellington and now Parsons on the scenes as well. The great thing about these four leg spinners is that they are very different leg spin bowlers and offer something very unique individually. Competition is great, and it’s really exciting where we are at in Australian cricket.”

McGrath was also quite appreciate of Vlaemnick, who came back after a moderate outing in the first T20 to bowl a superb spell in the third T20. For McGrath, who’s also the vice captain of Australian senior women’s team, she is a great resource to have in the team going forward. 

“It’s scary how well she is bowling. I faced her in the net and was terrified. She was pretty nervous before game one. First time in a long time she has strung a full season and gone into the first game. In the third T20, she was really unplayable. 

She has been building really nicely and has spent a lot of time in the pre-season working with our bowling coach. She showed her class and was relentless. She’s gonna be a really crucial player for Australia going forward.”

The three 50-over games begin tomorrow, August 14, in Mackay. 

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