Sophie Molineux's Curious Captaincy and Bowling Prowess

It’s a curious one. Sophie Molineux, a notional all-rounder, was appointed to lead the Australian women’s team with fewer than a hundred international runs in any format. In her first gig as all-format captain – a T20 in Saint Vincent in March – she was carded to bat at No 8 but sent in Alana King instead with an over to go. In the second match she was due in next but not required, and only in the third did she bat as listed, facing the last 12 balls of an innings. This from a player who couldn’t bowl either, restricted by injury. In the one-day series to follow, she journeyed up the order once for a hit, again didn’t bowl, then missed the two games to follow.

Molineux can, in fact, bat. While her full T20 career has included at least one innings at every spot in the order, most of her domestic innings have been as an opener. She has batted top five in 82 per cent of her domestic games, but zero per cent of her international ones. Players not getting much chance isn’t unusual in Australian teams, with so much all-round strength that good batters regularly get stuck down the order. But it has become a notable part of Molineux’s brief tenure, especially as she opened her team’s T20 World Cup campaign by once again sliding herself down the order.

Already carded as low as No 9 when Australia took on South Africa at Old Trafford on Saturday, she once again promoted King into her spot when Australia needed a closing flurry, on 155 for 7 with two overs to go. When King departed with three balls remaining, leaving even more licence to swing, Molineux promoted No 11 Kim Garth to do the honours instead. All of them can hit – Garth in a former cricketing life batted first drop for Ireland. But it was a curious sight: an Australian skipper seeming to choose modesty over tackling the job.

Finally, though, Molineux as skipper put herself front and centre. With South Africa needing 173 to win, and with opener Laura Wolvaardt in the middle of one of the all-time runs of white-ball form, Molineux handed herself the new ball. Left-arm spin to open the bowling with only two fielders allowed in the deep can be a perilous task, but her chiselling accuracy was there from the beginning. Dot ball, another, then three. Two singles, then the ball that zeroed in on the pads of Suné Luus, drawing the umpire’s agreement with the appeal.

Another wicket fell to Garth in the second over, and the third over was Molineux again: despite being hit for an outlandish six when Nadine de Klerk changed her shot into a slog sweep halfway through charging the bowler, the over cost only seven. South Africa had come into this game on a wave of bullishness, certainly from their supporters, believing that after three consecutive white-ball finals this was their time to take the next step. And yet, from 2 for 16 after three overs, it already felt like South Africa were out of the game.

Molineux kept ringing the changes with her four-spinner attack, each of whom robbed South Africa of air. Wolvaardt ended the powerplay having faced only 12 balls. While South Africa’s skipper eventually reached 44, it was scored too slowly to fuel the chase, and when she tried to accelerate she fell to her counterpart. That made three overs, 2 for 17 for Molineux, who might have improved those figures had South Africa not been bowled out within 17 overs for 107, a loss by 65 runs.

Australia’s spin balance may only be a phenomenon because Molineux is the leader. Ash Gardner is the team’s star in both disciplines. Georgia Wareham has recently joined Gardner in the top six with her explosive hitting, but her primary suit is still with the ball, those flat nagging leg-breaks that so often stifle scoring. King is a very different leg-spinner, more in the classic mould, but with an accuracy that so often eludes the craft. None of them can credibly be left out of the best XI. The four took eight wickets between them.

None of them, though, opens the bowling, so if that can become the new captain’s niche then perhaps the balance can work across the tournament. This team is yet to become Molineux’s, and that can only come with time or with success. More of the latter is a sure-fire way to need less of the former. And a few chances to show her worth with the bat wouldn’t hurt at all.