DOLPHINS’ DELIGHT
It’s been a season to remember for the Dolphins’ women with victory in the Twenty20 competition but grand final heartbreak in the Katherine Raymont Shield one-day grand final.
OVERALL RATING A
It’s hard to fault a side that claimed the club’s first piece of Katherine Raymont Shield silverware with victory in the Twenty20 final and narrowly missed the title double.
Stacked with players aged 20 or under, the Dolphins defied the odds to dominate version one of the one-day decider earlier this month, only for rain to intervene.
Falling to Wests in the replay a week later was the only blemish in a strong season.
BATTING RATING A
The fact nine different batters registered one or more half-centuries throughout the 50-over competition underlined the depth. It helped the Dolphins avoid any major disasters with the bat, with a score of 123 by far their lowest of the one-day season.
The challenge now is to increase the number of individual triple-figure scores, with Georgia Redmayne, Rebecca van Helvoirt and Delissa Kimmince contributing one ton apiece.
BOWLING RATING A
The bowling workload was spread around the squad and together the Dolphins got the job done more often than not.
The experienced Roxanne Thomson collected a competition-high 30 wickets, while teammates Grace Parsons (25), Hiruni Don (18), SammyJo Johnson, Amy Riddell (both 15) and Tara Wheeler (13) also finished in double figures.
A pace-bowling spearhead would be a valuable addition to the team.
THE HIGHLIGHT
Victory in the one-day decider would have been a crowning glory but claiming a breakthrough title in the T20 final against Valleys in January was not a bad consolation.
After restricting the Diehards to 5-80 from their 20 overs, the Dolphins cruised home with nine wickets and 7.1 overs to spare.
THE STAR
Crowned the WNCL player of the year in February, Georgia Redmayne was simply a class above in her first season with the Dolphins.
The 25-year-old Tasmanian star amassed 691 runs at an average of 115.17 – including an unbeaten 116 in the washed out one-day grand final – in just 11 games for the Coast.
THE BACKBONE
Having ended her long absence from cricket midway through the season, former Queensland Fire all-rounder Belinda McDougall was the rock in the Dolphins’ lateseason charge.
In nine innings, she scored 316 runs at 35.11 to provide much-needed stability in the middle order.
THE FIND
At just 16, all-rounder Grace Parsons showed she was not out of her depth in the top grade, picking up the third-most wickets (25 at 19.44) in the competition with her legspin to go with 139 runs.