No extra pressure as Villani closes in on history

Elyse Villani is determined to ensure finals pressure does not curtail her red-hot form, as she prepares to lead an understrength Victoria into Saturday’s domestic one-day decider against Queensland at Junction Oval.

Villani is far and away the most experienced batter in the Victoria XI following the departures of Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry for Australia’s tour of New Zealand, and the 31-year-old is also in the form of her life.

She needs just 37 runs in the final to break the all-time record for the most runs in a Women’s National Cricket League season.

The shock return of Annabel Sutherland from injury will bolster Victoria’s batting line-up – the allrounder had been ruled out of Australia’s tour and the remainder of the summer due to a stress reaction in her right femur earlier this month – but it will be Villani who holds the key against a strong Queensland side featuring Georgia Redmayne, Grace Harris and Laura Kimmince.

Villani has put her stunning form, which has seen her score 593 runs in eight innings including three centuries, down to rediscovering her love of cricket and playing with freedom.

She is determined to hold on to that feeling, as Victoria seek to snap a 15-year drought in the WNCL against a Queensland team desperate to win their first title.

"Not really to be honest," Villani said when asked if she was feeling any extra pressure.

"I just think if you fall into that trap you’re going to get yourself into trouble.

"We’ve got a responsibility as 11 individuals who walk out there to put our best foot for the team and we’re just got to commit to playing a really positive brand of cricket.

"It may come off for some people, it may not come off for some people but if we all commit to that as a team we’re giving ourselves the best opportunity."

Queensland captain Redmayne, who has stepped into the role usually held by Australia allrounder Jess Jonassen, said her team were under no illusions around the importance of restricting Villani.

However, she said the new-look make-up of the Victoria team, with the majority of players only coming into the squad for last weekend’s matches against Western Australia, provided a different challenge.

"Junior (Villani) has been in great form, that will be a big wicket," Redmayne said.

"I think at finals time anything can happen, we’re confident we have a team who are very capable of winning the final tomorrow but that means we have to go out there and execute our skills and you don’t want to leave it up to chance.

"But anything can happen in finals and it’s a bit of the unknown with their team as well, we don’t know too much about some of their players."

Redmayne has also been in a rich vein of form, scoring 397 runs at 99.25, including one century and two unbeaten scores in the nineties in seven innings.

It is a marked improvement on her 2019-20 campaign, when she scored 103 runs in seven matches at 14.71.

While pleased with her campaign to date, Redmayne said her major focus was on ensuring the Fire returned home to Brisbane with the Ruth Preddey Cup in their possession for the first time.

"I worked really hard in the preseason and having the extra time in the Queensland set-up with (coach) Ashley Noffke has helped me work on my batting, I’ve developed some different shots and I’m trying to be more aggressive and take the game on," Redmayne said.

"It’s been great for me personally having a few more runs on the board this season but at the end of the day it comes down to the final and I want to perform well tomorrow."

Both teams have been in contact with their absent Australian stars this week, who will no doubt be keeping tabs on the game as they leave quarantine in Christchurch and fly to Hamilton ahead of Sunday’s first T20 International.

Alongside Lanning and Perry, the other Victorians in the squad are Georgia Wareham, Tayla Vlaeminck, Sophie Molineux and Molly Strano.

Jonassen is one of two Queenslanders, alongside Beth Mooney.

"It’d be huge (to win the title)," Villani said. "It’s been a really difficult year for a lot of Victorians.

“We know it would mean a huge amount to the team, to the girls who aren’t here and to the organisation."