WAREHAM PROVES WORTH
EYEBROWS were raised when Australian leg-spinner Georgia Wareham earnt a six-figure payday at the Women’s Premier League auction on Monday while first-choice leggie Alana King went unsold.
Wareham hadn’t played international cricket since October 2021 after suffering an ACL injury, and a few state games for Victoria was her only output for teams to gauge.
But the 23-year-old showed why the Gujarat Giants forked out $131,000 for her as Wareham bowled the Aussies to victory over Bangladesh at the T20 World Cup in a cruisy effort that kept their quest for a threepeat of titles on track.
Playing her first official game for Australia in 485 days, having played two warm-up games, Wareham snared 3-20 as Australia limited the battling Bangladeshis to just 7-107 off their 20 overs in Port Elizabeth.
Then skipper Meg Lanning, who was sold for $193,000 herself in the WPL auction, steered the defending champs home, with Ash Gardner, the half-amillion-dollar star, hitting the winning runs in the eightwicket win, achieved with 10 balls to spare.
Lanning finished on 48 not out after Alyssa Healy made 37, but Wareham was crowned player of the match and thanked the selectors for backing her to go to South Africa despite her lack of lead-in cricket.
“It’s pretty special to play for your country but to do that in a World Cup and get some wickets was pretty cool,” Wareham said.
“It’s really cool for the selectors to back me in to come to this World Cup without having played much cricket.”
Lanning said Wareham was a “game changer” and showed why she was picked for the squad.
“She’s had a long road back from a pretty serious injury and to have her back in the side was really great to see,” she said.
While Wareham starred, teen fast bowler Darcie Brown took her wicket tally at the World Cup to six in just two matches, snaring the opening two Bangladesh wickets. She looms as a key weapon in Australia’s title defence.
Despite the win, a concerning run of outs for superstar opener Beth Mooney continued.
Mooney, who was bought in Monday’s action for $350,000, was out for two.
It followed a duck in the opener to New Zealand, and a golden duck in Australia’s warm-up loss to Ireland.