Lucy Hamilton, The Youngest Player to Take Five-Wicket in BBL
Lucy Hamilton’s 5/8 is also the joint-second-best figure in the Big Bash League.
Before Sunday morning, Lucy Hamilton, a left-arm seamer, hadn’t taken a single wicket in her first seven Big Bash League games. But on that day, the 18-year-old made an impact right away. She took her first wicket with just her second ball, bowling out Yastika Bhatia from the Melbourne Stars. Then, with the second-to-last ball of the over, Lucy got another wicket, this time dismissing Annabel Sutherland.
The evening got even better when she took down her idol, Meg Lanning, who was caught behind on the first ball of her second over. Tess Flintoff and Deepti Sharma returned with amazing bowling figures of 4 overs, 1 run, 8 balls, and 5 wickets. At just 18 years and 193 days old, Tess became the youngest player to get a five-wicket haul in the league. Her brilliant performance helped limit the Stars to just 138 runs, a target the Heats easily passed in 17.3 overs. Her strategy was simple: she bowled a good length on the stumps and made the ball move in both directions.
The left-arm fast bowler from Bundaberg is a rare talent in women’s cricket. She was picked for the BBL when she was just 16 years old. This happened after her impressive performance in the 2022 Under-19 World Cup, where she took five wickets with an average of 10.5. However, chances to play in the league were hard to come by.
She said that the thought of not taking a wicket wasn’t bothering her. “I wasn’t thinking about not getting a wicket,” Hamilton told reporters after the match. “It was more about trusting what I do and knowing it would happen eventually. I had to be patient since I’ve played a lot of games. But when it finally came, it felt amazing.”
Between her games, she also has to focus on her schoolwork. “My parents drive me back and forth a lot, which is tough for them,” Hamilton explained. So, what does she do during the long car rides? “I enjoy watching movies,” she says. Sunday felt like it came right out of a movie script for her.
