Nicole Bolton has put her stunning start to the WNCL season down to enjoying her cricket and not putting pressure on herself.
After returning to Perth in the early hours of Monday morning with the WA Women boasting a 2-0 record, Bolton revealed to emageogroup.com her consecutive player of the match performances in Brisbane last weekend came after the star all-rounder had been wondering where her form was at.
The 30-year-old put any lingering doubts to bed with 77 runs from 106 balls in WA’s five-wicket win over Queensland and then backed it up with 63 runs and two wickets in a 16-run win over Tasmania the very next day.
“I wasn’t really sure where I was at batting,” Bolton said. “I had a pretty disappointing Ashes Series and then came back and I sort of was showing glimpses of it in our practice games and maybe getting a little bit frustrated, not feeling like myself out there. It’s a pretty dangerous place to be heading into a weekend away against good opposition but I think just sort of going back to the way that I enjoy playing was the key. To be able to back up, I didn’t think I had it in me to be able to back up performances, just because I haven’t sort of batted much but it was pretty pleasing personally.”
Putting national selection of her mind
Bolton has been keeping an eye on the fortunes of her Australian teammates in the West Indies but says not worrying about national selection allowed her to play with freedom for her State.
“It was really enjoyable, and I think that game against Tasmania was the reason we play cricket,” Bolton said. “To have a really hard-fought win and soak it up in the sheds afterwards was just awesome.
“Previously I’ve always gone into WNCL or State weekends and you kind of have one eye on international selection so you get caught in two minds – you want to show what you can do and the way that they want you to play but you’ve also got to think about what role you’ve got in front of you for your State so it can be a weird place to be. I tried to take a similar mindset in that I do when I play club cricket, which is not to think too hard, just worry about the ball and just build myself into a partnership. I’m pretty confident that with the experience I’ve got I can get my team into a good winning position and I think that’s just something that I’ve lacked a bit of confidence in coming back from the UK. It was nice to show that I’ve still got something there and I can offer that for the girls here in Perth.”
A shift down the order could become more permanent
Bolton came in at four in both matches and believes it’s something she could do more in the future with a youthful batting line up.
She praised captain Chloe Piparo for her leadership, with a strong knock of 76 against Queensland and then leading the WA Women to defend 194 against Tasmania. Emma King took four wickets across the matches.
“The Queensland side was a very good side, even though they had the Australian players out,” Bolton said. “For us to win against them, that was a pretty solid day for us. I think the girls would have taken a lot of confidence out of the last two days.”
Bolton, Piparo and King now turn their attention preparing for WBBL duties for the Perth Scorchers before the WNCL returns in January.