In sports, comparisons are unavoidable. Emerging players may find them unhelpful at times. However, 15-year-old all-rounder Caoimhe Bray is embracing it after putting on a stellar display on Sunday to become the youngest WBBL player ever for the Sydney Sixers.
She answered, “No, I love it,” before making her debut and hitting the game-winning runs and taking Deandra Dottin’s wicket. Since I was very, very little, Ellyse Perry has undoubtedly served as a role model for me. I believe that every school assignment was about her, if you ask my pals from elementary school.
At the T20 World Cup four years ago, Bray was taking photos with the Australian squad. “I think that day Ellyse actually got out for a golden duck and I remember mum telling me that I was crying in the stands when that happened.”
Now, on Sunday at Adelaide Oval, Perry gave Bray her cap and stood behind her as she got ready to bowl her first over. “I was crying a little bit, maybe more than a little bit,” she later told Seven. Dottin pulled her first ball for six, Sarah Bryce edged the second and should have caught it, and she bludgeoned the third ball down the ground. In response, Bray hit a superb yorker into the base of the middle stump to end the over.
“I was a little shady in my first over.However, she expressed her satisfaction with the wicket. “Think I had to redeem myself for the ones before that.”
She then came in and struck her second ball for four runs when the team needed 32 from 20 balls, after Perry scored a brilliant 81 off 38. With four boundaries in six balls, Bryce severely damaged the requirement, and Bray’s lofted drive over the off side completed the triumph.
“There’s not much expectation on me because I’m so young, but obviously still want to do well, and I was like, guess I’ll go for it, not many runs needed and, yeah, went pretty well,” she explained.
“For a 15-year-old to hit a ball over extra cover to win the game is amazing,” Perry stated on Seven.
She wants to continue playing two sports even though she has a three-year contract with the Sixers. They asked, “So, are you still playing soccer?” I believe that this WBBL deal won’t stop me from playing soccer, and I want to continue doing both for as long as I can.”
Bray will be residing in Coogee alongside other interstate and international players for the duration of the WBBL because it is not feasible to commute from home in Newcastle. Her mother, Kim, will be with her, and her father, Gavin, will visit from time to time. On Sunday, both were in Adelaide. She’ll complete her coursework online.
For a 15-year-old, Bray’s ascension has been so quick that it can hardly be described as anything else. At the age of eight, Bray, who was born in Denman, in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, began playing junior club cricket for her Under-11 team.
She led Greater Hunter Central Coast to the championship last season with 202 off 134 balls, capping the season with 955 runs in the NSW Under-18 Brewer Shield. She played in a tri-series in Brisbane in September with the Australia Under-19 team, where she put up an impressive all-round performance against New Zealand, scoring 84 and going 4 for 20.
Her bowling speed is among the noteworthy first impressions she has left. On Sunday, the speed gun recorded her at 112 kph.
Has she had a chance to take a step back and think about all that has transpired so quickly? “I actually don’t think I really have,” she said. “It has undoubtedly developed rather rapidly. Although I haven’t spent much time at home either, I’m not whining. I enjoy playing sports.
Read More: Babar, Afridi, Naseem back as PCB announce squads for tours of Australia, Zimbabwe
