Nicole Bolton and her Perth Scorchers teammates are determined to showcase their best in front of a sea of orange after returning for their first home fixtures of WBBL05.
Bolton, Chloe Piparo and Emma King started the new Scorchers’ campaign with grueling road trip taking in Melbourne and Brisbane, coming away with a 1-2 record after a seven-wicket loss to the Adelaide Strikers on Sunday. It came after Perth beat the Brisbane Heat and lost to the Melbourne Renegades in the opening matches.
Bolton was the standout in a losing cause against the Strikers with 41 runs, as well as a tight bowling display.
“I think we knew it was going to be tough with our first games away,” Bolton said. “Playing such a clinical game against the Heat was great but as fickle as the format is, to put out a performance like we did yesterday was pretty disappointing but we have to regroup pretty quickly and turn our heads to Friday here.”
The Scorchers take on the Renegades again on Friday night at the WACA Ground and the Melbourne Stars on Saturday.
“It’s massive,” Bolton said. “I think any time you’ve got home fixtures you want to be penciling them in and giving your best performance because you know how hard the travel schedule is. We play really well here at the WACA. Our bowlers enjoy it and we’ve got some batters here that really enjoy the quick outfield. So in front of a home crowd and family and friends, hopefully we can put in our best performance.”
Bolton, 30, said she was enjoying her cricket so far in the tournament.
Bolton is batting at four, while her right arm off-spin has been widely employed by captain Meg Lanning.
“It’s been really good,” she said. “Obviously really enjoying the challenge of bowling in the power play and getting involved in the game from the get go. It’s a little bit different batting in the middle order but I’m really taking on that and enjoying my role so I’m actually really enjoying my cricket at the moment and I’m really excited heading into this festival weekend because I love playing at the WACA, especially in front of my family and friends.”
Bolton said scores in the competition were only getting higher.
“One hundred and thirty used to be a really difficult score to chase down and I think the benchmark is being set now, we’re looking at 150, 160 is actually par,” Bolton said. “With a great facility like the WACA, you’re probably going to see that stretch over the weekend as well.
“We definitely bat really deep, we have got some fire power at the top and I know that Meg doesn’t like to miss out too often so she’ll be itching to get out there on the WACA and that’s where she plays her best cricket so fingers crossed we can set the benchmark pretty high this weekend.”