It’s not often that you see a Cobar cricketer’s name up on the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) scoreboard, but if you were at the ground on December 18, you would have been able to read Nicola Harbison’s.
The SCG was the venue where Nicola and her Western Outlaws team took on, and beat, the Central Coast Rush side in the Country Cricket NSW Plan B Women’s Country Championships final.
The Twenty/20 match was a thriller and was won by Western Outlaws in the last over.
It’s the first time a Western women’s team has won the championships in a very long time.
“It was such a cool experience and quite surreal walking out onto the SCG for the first time!” Nicola told The Cobar Weekly.
Nicola and her Western Outlaws won all three games in their Southern Pool competition back in November which earned them a finals spot with the Central Coast team who were the Northern Pool winners.
In last month’s Plan B Women’s Country Championships final at the SCG, Central Coast Rush won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Western Outlaws recorded a modest total of 122 off their 20 overs with their captain Kira Churchland top scoring on 52.
Churchland was later named the Player of the Match.
Western Outlaws weren’t out in the field long before Nicola nabbed their first wicket when she bowled Central Coast Rush’s opener Emily Cross (3) with her first ball.
Nicola finished the match with excellent figures of 1/24 off her four overs. (She was also unlucky to have a few chances put down off her bowling.)
Western’s bowling remained tight all innings and, despite a concentrated batting effort from the Central Coast Rush side (which included a knock of 44 from their captain Rochelle Davis), they fell three runs short and the Western Outlaws claimed the win and the prestigious Plan B Country Championships Bash Cup.
