AFTER a final over win in the WBBL|09 decider against the Brisbane Heat, Jemma Barsby‘s Strikers are looking for the same result on Sunday against the same opposition at Adelaide Oval.

In a match that opens a double-header at the venue, it is the back-to-back champions who will expect a passionate ‘Blue Crew’ at the oval as they look to make their club three-peat champions at the end of the season.

Joining up with those participating in the team’s maiden T20 Spring Challenge campaign are Australian players such as Strikers and national acting skipper Tahlia McGrath, Megan Schutt and Darcie Brown, as well as South African captain Laura Wolvaardt and Irish all-rounder Orla Prendergast, with Indian superstar Smriti Mandhana joining them throughout the tournament.

Rookie Me spoke exclusively to Barsby at the launch of the season on Saturday. She declared that her side are ready to go after their pre-season and T20 Spring Challenge for a bulk of the squad.

“[The pre-seasons] been good,” Barsby said. “Obviously we had the Spring Challenge for the girls that aren’t in the national set-up so it was quite nice to get out there and play some games and be able to practice some things that we’d been working out in the game situation so that’s been nice.

“The Aussie girls and the internationals have been away and have just come back so it’s been nice to get everyone back together now and we’re ready to go.”

When asked about the international signings, Barsby was very bullish on the talent that Adelaide have managed to sign up this season. She described the impact that Wolvaardt, Mandhana and Prendergast will have on the team.

“They’ve been great, obviously ‘Wolvie’ has been with us now for the last couple of years,” Barsby continued.

“Smriti, it will be amazing to see her, I played with her at the Brisbane Heat a few years ago so to [able to] get back around her will be really cool.

“Then we’ve got Orla [who’s] come in and she’s been really good, she’s been bowling the house down and she’s also been smacking them so I’m actually really excited to see how she goes out there tomorrow.”

Two fresh faces in the Strikers line-up are all-rounder Eleanor Larosa and fast bowler Maggie Clark.

Larosa has been impressive so far in both the WNCL for South Australia, as well as the Spring Challenge where she took 16 wickets across the nine matches. Coming into those teams as a pace bowling option, she has been scoring runs with the bat with 50 coming up in the middle order against the Meteors.

Clark, a 17-year-old bowler took a restrictive 2/13 against the Scorchers in the Spring Challenge, with four wickets taken across four games.

Barsby described the impact that the Spring Challenge had on the younger squad members who benefited from more game time in the format.

“It’s been really impressive, obviously they stood out very well in the Spring Challenge and that’s all we ask for them is to go out there and practice in a competition that’s out there to practice a few things,” she said.

“It was nice for them to succeed and try new runs of playing with the surge and having two [fielders] out so it was a really good experience for them and I think they are going to learn a lot over the next month over the WBBL.”

Having the new format of the competition, which now includes the 10-day T20 Spring Challenge running before the proper WBBL season, has been something that has kept the players that are usually playing WNCL cricket, playing the shorter game in preparation for the marquee tournament.

Barsby spoke about the T20 Spring Challenge and it’s ability to prepare the whole squad ahead of the season.

“It was nice to go out there and try things without a real consequence, obviously you are still playing for a trophy, but we didn’t really have the consequences like in the WBBL so it was nice to try [to switch] things up, put people in different positions and get that experience under pressure and in that competition,” she said.

“It was really good for our young ones like Eleanor and Maggie to go out and get some games under their belt.”