Beth Mooney, Georgia Redmayne run riot against Western Australia  

Class. Temperament. Magnificent display. No words will be enough to describe Beth Mooney as the Australian opener went into the record books surpassing Grace Harris’ 162, to register Queensland’s highest individual score on Monday (March 1) against Western Australia in the ongoing Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL).



Chasing Queensland’s 368 for 4 – which also happen to be their highest WNCL score surpassing 351 for 6 in 2016 – Western Australia were all out for 208 in just 46.5 overs at the Allan Border Field. This was Queensland’s second win in four matches and sit third in the table with 11 points.



Queensland never looked in discomfort from the start. The opening pair of Mooney and Georgia Voll (46), yielded 83 runs before the latter was dismissed by Nicole Bolton, trapped in front for four short of a well-deserved half-century.



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Georgia Redmayne joined Mooney in the middle and there was no looking back for Queensland from thereon. The duo took the opposition bowlers to cleaners dispatching every loose ball that came their way on the way to their 259-run stand for the second wicket.



It was also the fourth highest partnership for any wicket and Queensland’s highest for any wicket in the WNCL history. The previous record was held by Melissa Bulow and Julia Price who put together 202 runs for the opening wicket against New South Wales Breakers at the same venue in 2006. Mooney and Redmayne became the sixth pair to make a 250-run stand in the WNCL.



Western Australia skipper Chloe Piparo used as many as seven bowlers, but none could bring any respite with Piepa Cleary (1/71) conceding most of the runs among the pack. Mooney completed her hundred in 98 balls before putting a halt at 163 off 139 balls, with the help of 16 boundaries. This was also Mooney’s maiden 150-plus score in List A.



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On the other hand, Redmayne too notched up her magical figures in 98 balls – her third in WNCL and first for Queensland. She finished at 121 off 107 balls. Laura Kimmince also hit a 10-ball 22 towards the end of the innings to propel Queensland to their highest ever WNCL total.



In reply, half-centuries from Piparo (53) and Mathilda Carmichael (53) couldn’t help Western Australia’s cause, thanks to Courtney Sippel (3/25) and Meagan Dixon (3/45) fiery bowling. Ashley Day (11) was the first to go before Megan Banting (two) and Bolton (17) perished in quick successions leaving the side at 71 for 3 in 17^th over.



Piparo was undone by a Dixon delivery when she holed out to Jess Jonassen. Edgar and Carmichael then stitched together a 54-run partnership for the fifth wicket but once the former was run out by Sippel, the rest of the pack just followed suit to be all out with 19 balls to spare.



Brief scores: Queensland 368/4 in 50 overs (Beth Mooney 163, Georgia Redmayne 121) beat Western Australia 208 all out in 46.5 overs (Chloe Piparo 53, Mathilda Carmichael 53; Courtney Sippel 3/25, Meagan Dixon 3/45) by 160 runs.