Western Australia have fallen short in their opening Women’s National Cricket League fixture of the season, with Tasmania prevailing by 52 runs at the WACA Ground yesterday.

Tasmania have opened the WNCL season with a comfortable bonus-point victory over Western Australia as the reigning champions start on their journey towards a fourth-consecutive title. 

Molly Strano was named player of the match for her 2-29 and 19 runs but there were several Tigers players who put their hand up in a very even display.

It was a frustrating innings for Tassie who, after electing to bat first, had six batters dismissed after scoring between 10 and 30 runs.

Only Tabitha Saville went beyond that, top-scoring with a composed 46. 

On a green-tinged WACA pitch, it was the home side’s spinners who had the biggest impact early, with off-spinners Amy Edgar and Lilly Mills taking the first four wickets.

Mills again came into her own at the death, spinning through the tail to bowl out Tasmania for 219, on her way to the second five-wicket haul of her WNCL career.

In reply of the modest total, the home side never got going. 

Chloe Piparo copped a peach from Hayley Silver-Holmes while Maddy Darke was snared by a sharp catch from Saville at slip off Strano. 

Amy Edgar (29) and recruit Mikayla Hinkley (24) offered brief resistances, but regular wickets halted the chase.

Chloe Ainsworth (40) got going but was quickly running out of partners and was the final wicket to fall, 52 runs short.

Strano, Nicola Carey (2-24) and Maisy Gibson (2-38) all finished with two wickets while Lauren Smith (3-39) did one better.