Hobart Hurricanes captain Nicola Carey is in line to play her 150th WBBL match tonight, on the same day she and her partner Elyse Villani are due to welcome their first child.
The 33-year-old all-rounder will reach the milestone against the Melbourne Renegades at Ninja Stadium if family commitments allow. It is the Hurricanes first home game this season.
The defending champions are chasing their first win of WBBL|12 after losing their opening two games to the Melbourne Stars and Sydney Sixers. They have named an unchanged 13-player squad.
Carey took over the captaincy this season from Villani, who led the club to its first championship last season before retiring.
“It’s a huge honour,” Carey said when her appointment was announced. “Big shoes to fill obviously, with Elyse leaving us at the end of last season but I’m incredibly honoured to be given the job.”
She said she had not captained “a heap” during her career, but had learned by watching how Villani went about the role.
“Last season was last season,” she said. “It was amazing and we really enjoyed that. But we come into this competition and everyone starts on zero points again.”
After 59 matches for Sydney Thunder, Carey joined Hobart ahead of WBBL|05 and tonight’s game would be her 91st for the Hurricanes.
The left-handed batter and right-arm seamer is the club’s all-time leading wicket-taker with 88, while her 1,395 runs are second only to Lizelle Lee in the club’s history.
Across her WBBL career she has scored 1,880 runs, including six half-centuries.
Young spinner Amy Smith has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a bone stress injury, with Isa Malgioglio staying with the squad as her replacement.
Cricket Tasmania head of high performance Salliann Beams said defending a title would be a test.
“Winning a championship is an incredible achievement, but defending one presents a completely different challenge,” she said. “We know the competition will be coming hard at us this summer, so it’s important we continue to evolve and find ways to improve.”
Tonight’s match will be broadcast on Fox Cricket and streamed on Kayo Sports.
