Laura Harris, fresh off a disappointing campaign for Sydney Thunder in the WBBL, made an immediate impact in the Women’s Super Smash by hitting a 15-ball half-century for Otago on Sunday. It’s the joint-fastest half-century in women’s T20s (where data is available) alongside the mark set by Marie Kelly, for Warwickshire against Gloucestershire in 2022.
In what was her Otago debut, Harris, the veteran Australia batter known for her big-hitting, made short work of Otago’s target of 146 against Canterbury, walking out at 46 for 2 in the sixth over and making sure her team went past the target by the 15th. She scored 52 in 17 balls, with six fours and four sixes, at Molyneux Park in Alexandra, before being caught in the deep off Gabby Sullivan, the medium pacer.
Harris had a mediocre WBBL, as did Thunder, who finished one off the bottom on the eight-team table, better only than the winless Brisbane Heat. Harris played all ten games of the season for Thunder, batted eight times and tallied 69 runs, though she struck at 197.14, the best of the competition.
She had been in good form earlier this year, though, and had threatened Kelly’s mark when batting for Warwickshire earlier this year, scoring a 16-ball half-century on her way to a Player-of-the-Match-winning 55 in 21 balls against Durham in the Vitality Blast.
Harris also has three 18-ball half-centuries in T20s, in addition to the 15- and 16-ball landmarks.
On Sunday, the speed of Harris’ scoring meant Otago became the first team to pick up a bonus point, introduced ahead of the season in the Women’s Super Smash to encourage high-scoring games. Apart from the regular four points for winning a match, teams can earn a bonus point if they score 150 or more regardless of whether they bat first or second, or for achieving a run rate greater than 1.25 times that of the opposition in the second innings. Canterbury had scored at 7.25. Otago finished at 9.84.
