ADVERTISEMENT

Betts back to SACA District cricket this weekend

By Peter Argent

A part of the Perth Scorchers squad that saw Women’s Big Bash League glory against the Strikers last week, Betts has returned to SA.

This weekend she will don Northern Districts uniform alongside her Strikers foe Tegan McPharlin in the round 9, Sunday fixture against West Torrens at Henley Memorial ground in the western suburbs of Adelaide.

Betts will be looking for some bowling in match conditions, to force her way into the Adelaide Scorpions line up for the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL) 50-over competition which is expected to start in mid-December.

Having played in the SACA first grade (formerly called A grade) competition for a decade, Betts had been one of the dominant players at this level of the game.

She has a career highest score of 124 not out against her foundation SACA club Port Adelaide back in round two of summer of 2018-19.

Betts also produced a better than a-run-a-ball 64 not out in the 2017-18 Grand Final against Sunday opponents, the Eagles in the 2017-2018, although it wasn’t good enough engineer a premiership win.

A true all-rounder Betts best figures with the ball for the Jets is an amazing five wickets at the cost of nine runs, from eight overs including three maidens against the Kensington Browns in 2019-20.

Defending a mediocre total of 76, they dismissed a potent Browns outfit for just 60 runs, bowling in tandem with Strikers and Scorpions teenager Darcie Brown.

Back in 2018-19, Samantha Betts became just the third South Australian woman to take a five-wicket haul since the inception of the WNCL in 1996-97.

The Broken Hill native earned the Women’s National Cricket League bowling award for the Scorpions in 2017-18 after taking nine wickets at 20.44, with best figures of 3/21.

In 2016, Betts was a recipient of the Adam Gilchrist Scholarship, which is awarded to the best female cricketer in Australia aged 21 or younger from rural Australia.

That scholarship saw Betts travel to the UK to represent Hampshire and Hursley Park Cricket Clubs.

The Scorpions are scheduled to start their 2021-02 WNCL campaign on December 17, against the Western Australian Fury at the WACA Ground in Perth, but there must be some doubt about the fixture going ahead, with the government closing the boarder to SA this week.

There is also a second fixture scheduled at the same venue on December 19.

 

Support the Barrier Truth!

We are a small, independently owned newspaper. If you got something from this article, giving something back helps us to continue publishing the truth from the Broken Hill region. Every little bit counts.

More Articles

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT