South Australia’s Women were on the road for the first time in 2025 as they headed to Cricket Central for the first of two WNCL fixtures against New South Wales today.
There were two key changes to the South Australian side, with both Megan Schutt (Australia) and Eleanor Larosa (Australia Under 19’s) returning from international duties.
Bridget Patterson was unsuccessful at the toss and South Australia were sent out for a bowl first under blue skies at Cricket Central.
Eleanor Larosa announced her return early with two cracking dismissals within her first two overs, including a peach of an in-swinger to bowl Elsa Hunter.
It didn’t take long for Courtney Neale to once again get involved in the action, continuing her positive start to 2025, dismissing the New South Wales captain for single figures.
Surviving the early collapse, Tahlia Wilson dug in with Claire Moore to take the visitors to 89 runs before Maddie Penna took two wickets in two balls to put the visitors back on top.
Wickets continued to fall but Wilson stuck around until the end, finishing with what was ultimately a match-winning 112*.
Penna was the best of the South Australian bowlers owning figures of 4-28, with Larosa (2-10), Neale (2-39) and Amanda-Jade Wellington (2-58) all claiming a couple each.
It was a poor start with the bat by South Australia, losing both openers and Courtney Webb for a combined 27 runs.
Armitage followed on from last week’s success and had a fast start before falling stumped to Adams for 23.
Maddie Penna once again dug deep, pushing South Australia towards hope of chasing the total, but was dismissed for 40 after putting on a solid partnership with Wellington (37).
Unfortunately, wickets continued to fall at consistent intervals as the chase got closer.
Alex Price contributed with a solid knock of 31 but South Australia were unable to get the job done losing their final three wickets in quick succession.
New South Wales were victors by 44 runs and the two teams will meet again at Cricket Central at 9:30am (ACDT) on Sunday.