Scoring your first century is a milestone moment in batter’s career, but Phoebe Litchfield’s Western Zone teammates made it extra special for her on Monday afternoon, tunneling her off as she walked from Kinross Main Oval with an unbeaten, even 100 to her name.
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The Orange phenom deserved it too after producing an innings to behold on Monday’s opening day of the Western NSW Under-15 Carnivals.
Litchfield produced a strong showing at last week’s Kookaburra Cup and brought that form back to her home turf, putting on a clinic at Kinross Main on her way to her maiden ton.
She brought up her hundred in the 30th over before retiring in a bid to ensure her entire side had time in the middle against Gordon.
At that point her Western side was 5-159, the blue and red caps went on to make 7-171 from their 40 overs before Abbie Uhr took 3-10 and Amy Kreuzberger took 3-1 to help Western bowl Gordon out for 59.
Litchfield’s innings showed off all her sides as a batter and came from just 82 balls and featured nine fours. That’s not the most impressive part though.
Litchfield’s first 50 included just one boundary and came from 59 balls before she went ballistic.
She blasted another eight boundaries and she sped from 50 to 100 in just 23 balls, bringing up three figures with a single to mid-on.
That sparked raucous celebrations from her Western teammates, and brought a huge smile to Litchfield’s face as she raised her bat in acknowledgement.
Her innings almost came to a close on 98 though.
On 97 she blasted one to backward square which looked sure to be a boundary but instead, a wonderful piece of Gordon fielding and a direct hit from the boundary almost brought Litchfield undone.
She just made it home for two though, before pinching a quick single to move to 100.
The ton came at a great time for Litchfield, who will head to Dubbo following this week’s carnival to play for the Western-Riverina Kangaroos at the Cricket NSW Under-14 State Challenge – along with Orange’s Blake Weymouth and Hugh Middleton.
In the boys’ carnival, Manly-Warringah had a day out against Wagga Wagga.
Jack Hobson took 4-7 from five overs five to help their side skittle Wagga for just 45, from 28 overs.
Josh Park made sure Manly-Warringah didn’t muck around the chase, banging 25 as his side won with seven wickets and 39 overs in hand.
Blacktown had an even more dominant win over Illawarra.
The western Sydney side rolled Illawarra for 47 in 20 overs, before chasing the tiny total down without losing a wicket, in just seven overs.
ACT downed South Coast on the opening day as well. The former rolled the latter for 106, before winning with four wickets in hand.
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
