Brisbane Heat registered their fifth win of the WBBL 2024 season with a dominant six-wicket win over Melbourne Stars on Sunday. The young pacer Lucy Hamilton entered the history books as he took a memorable five-wicket haul for the Heat.
The 18-year-old left-arm pacer picked 5 wickets while conceding just 8 runs in her four-over spell against the Stars. Lucy became the youngest cricketer in the Women's Big Bash League to register a five-wicket haul. She also produced the joint-second-best bowling figures in an innings in the tournament's ten-year history.
Best bowling figures in an innings in WBBL
- Megan Schutt (Adelaide Strikers) - 6 for 18 vs Sydney Thunder in 2022
- Lucy Hamilton (Brisbane Heat) - 5 for 8 vs Melbourne Stars in 2024
- Amanda-Jade Wellington (Adelaide Strikers) - 5 for 8 vs Brisbane Heat in 2021
- Amanda-Jade Wellington (Adelaide Strikers) - 5 for 8 vs Melbourne Renegades in 2022
- Hannah Darlington (Sydney Thunder) - 5 for 10 vs Melbourne Stars in 2023
Hamilton made a stunning impact after the Stars openers Yastika Bhatia and Annabel Sutherland were off to a positive start. She bowled out the Indian wicketkeeper batter with a brilliant delivery and also dismissed Sutherland in the same over to give the Heat a much-needed breakthrough.
Hamilton also bagged the valuable wickets of Meg Lanning, Deepti Sharma and Tess Flintoff to bowl out Melbourne Stars to 138 in 20 overs. Brisbane Heat chased down the target with six wickets and 15 balls remaining with Indian batter Jemimah Rodrigues top-scoring with 45 runs off 31 balls.
Hamilton skipped school holiday before her historic spell
After the game, Hamilton revealed that she was supposed to be enjoying a school holiday with her friends but chose to play today's game. Hamilton recently finished her high school diploma exams and then skipped the holidays to be part of Melbourne's squad.
"All my mates are at schoolies at the moment, on the Goldy living it up," Hamilton said. "Going out there today I was just trying to back myself. Getting my first wicket and getting 5-for, all the girls were getting around me. It was really exciting. I've had to be patient, played a few games, and it finally came and was really thrilling."
Hamilton was struggling to make an impact with no wicket in her first eight games in WBBL but the management kept faith in her and she finally made the mark against Brisbane.
