NEW SOUTH Wales has kicked off the second half of its 2024/25 WNCL season in the best way possible, defeating Tasmania by three wickets yesterday. The Breakers bowled the Tigers out for just 172, and although the Breakers cut their chase fine they still reached their target with 16 balls to spare.

NSW had their hosts on the back foot early, with the defending champions sitting at 4/22 almost halfway through the ninth over. Although things did improve from there, the biggest partnership of the innings was only 42 runs and no one in Tasmania’s top five making more than 19, the score could have been so much better.

Top scorer for the Tasmanians ultimately went to Emma Manix-Geeves, who fell two short of a half century. However, she was also one of only four batters to outscore the extras tally of 15.

On the flipside the Breakers’ bowlers shared the wicket taking duties around, with Sammy-Jo Johnson, Maitlan Brown, Sarah Coyte and Sam Bates all picking up a pair of wickets each.

The chase for the Breakers had a much less chaotic start than the Tigers’ innings had had. By comparison, NSW had scored 85 more runs than Tasmania had by the time the fourth wicket of the innings had fallen.

NSW seemed to take the steady, but not necessarily slow approach, with only two wickets of any decent size for the whole innings. Although they did keep losing wickets at a semi regular interval, the Breakers were still able to keep a decent enough pace up to give themselves enough of a buffer to get the job done in plenty of time.

Tahlia Wilson top scored at the top of the innings with 39, but Tasmania did itself no favours with an extras count of 17. Meanwhile for Tasmania, Maisy Gibson took three wickets while Nicola Carey took two wickets.