Western Australia has been wiped off the park by Queensland, bowled out for 81 and defeated by eight wickets in their WNCL clash on Thursday.
Decimated by injury and unavailability, WA handed a debut to teenager Chloe Bartholomew and slipped to 0-3 to start their campaign with the heavy defeat at Allan Border Field.
WA’s top score was 15, made by No.8 Lilly Mills. Only two other players scrapped to double figures.
Taneale Peschel returned for her first game of the campaign after a pre-season plagued by back and quad issues, but WA had already left home Amy Edgar and Chloe Ainsworth with injury.
Allrounder Georgia Voll continued her case for national selection with a rapid-fire half-century at the top of the order in a chase that ended in just 16 overs.
Mills and left-arm spinner Charis Bekker were WA’s only two wicket-takers. Mills had Georgia Redmayne caught at slip for one and Charli Knott found a fielder at deep-square off an ugly ball trending down the leg side.
Chloe Piparo, who reached 11 opening the batting with Maddy Darke, was beaten for pace by Nicola Hancock and bowled. Darke grafted her way to five off 24 balls through a treacherous opening spell, then went chasing a wide ball and sliced a catch to cover-point.
Bhavi Devchand, former Queenslander Mikayla Hinkley, Lisa Griffith and Mathilda Carmichael all fell in a flurry of 6-21.
Bartholomew, a Wanneroo teenager, faced 16 balls before turning a meek delivery around the corner to Voll at short-leg for a duck. She was one of four middle-order victims of a strangling spell by veteran spinner Jess Jonassen and fellow tweaker Knott.
Jonassen, a surprise snub from Australia’s Twenty20 World Cup squad, had taken 2-0 from her first 22 balls before Mills launched a six over mid-wicket.
The two sides meet again on Saturday.
