Cricket’s a funny game, as former CYMS all-rounder Kira Churchland has just found out in a big way.
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The former ACT Meteors star made the decision last year to take the 2018-19 summer off cricket, in a bid to potentially rekindle her passion for the game and see if she “missed it at all”.
Despite that, she’s been presented a baggy green cap after being named in the Australian Country merit XI and blasted her maiden century too, the two achievements coming in the space of two days last weekend.
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Oh, it was her birthday on the Saturday too – a couple of handy presents by anyone’s standards.
“It was a pretty good birthday weekend, but this was supposed to be a year away from cricket. It’s funny what happens when you stop trying,” Churchland laughed.
The national selection came after the Australian Country Cricket Championships in Shepparton, where she played for the Northern Territory and notched 141 runs at 35.25 and snared seven wickets at 14.57.
Her side didn’t manage to win a game in the tournament and didn’t make the finals as a result of that, but individually Churchland had done more than enough to earn an Australian cap.
“One of my friends actually wanted me to play for NSW Country but I didn’t get the opportunity there, but one came up to play for the Northern Territory,” Churchland explained.
“I went purely to have fun and enjoy the cricket, and maybe help some of their younger players too. It was a good week, but I knew they’d take semi-finals and finals into account (for Australian selection) so I certainly wasn’t confident of being named.”
The ton came after she agreed to make two appearances for Sydney on the Sunday, her old club where she won the top grade competition’s player of the year award in 2012-13, in the McDonald’s Women’s Premier Cricket Combined Twenty20 tournament.
I certainly wasn’t confident of being named.
- Kira Churchland, on her Australian Country selection
She admitted to struggling a touch in the first game, making eight from 20 balls against Bankstown, but it “all came off” in the second as she blasted a swashbuckling 100 from just 46 balls.
Sydney won both games, sneaking into fourth and qualifying for this weekend’s finals as a result.
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“It was my first century, which was pretty exciting,” she said.
“My highest score before that was 95 not out in a Twenty20 as well. The first game, it was the same pitch and everything, it was just tough to bat on.
“The sun hit it after that and well, it just all came off in the second game.”
But, however, she explained she won’t be able to try and reproduce that form in Sydney’s finals campaign.
“They’re the only two games I’ve played all season, so I don’t qualify for the finals,” she said.
“But I’ll follow along, hopefully they can go all the way.”
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