Beth Mooney's generosity has helped one of the country's up-and-coming 'keepers, but her Scorchers are unlikely to be as magnanimous in the race for WBBL finals
Keepers club: Mooney steps up to turn Faltum's Big Bash around
When Nicole Faltum was frustrated by her form with the wicketkeeping gloves early in Weber WBBL|11, help came from an unexpected source.
The Melbourne Renegades 'keeper, who has been earmarked as potentially the next in line for international honours behind Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney, had made an uncharacteristically scrappy start to the tournament.
Then, her phone buzzed, and it was none other than Scorchers 'keeper Mooney.
"Moons is such a great human ... she reached out after my first couple of games, (and said) she's watched a little bit of my keeping and just asked if we wanted to catch up and have a catch," Faltum, who celebrated her 100th WBBL game with a win over the Sixers on Friday, told cricket.com.au.
The ever-generous Mooney was more than happy to put club loyalties temporarily aside to help Faltum get her season back on track, and given the Renegades and Scorchers had a decent amount of crossover throughout the tournament, the pair had several opportunities to work together.
"We had a nice little catch in Perth ... every time she's seen me, she's reached out and just checked in to see how I'm going," Faltum continued.
"She's so generous with her time and to have a player who you play against and who you're competitive with reach out is so nice.
"I think she gets it, being a wicketkeeper, and how tough it is at times - it can be a little bit lonely, you feel like you're on your own.
"So for Moons to reach out was really sweet, I'm extremely grateful for all of her help and I feel like it's really helped."
Faltum has taken the gloves for Australia A in several series in recent years, and after being selected as Australia's back-up wicketkeeper to tour New Zealand in T20Is earlier this year, and to travel to India with the Australian squad in September in a development role, appears to currently have the edge on other candidates Tahlia Wilson and Maddy Darke.
The 25-year-old typically bats down the order for the Renegades – although with their top-order batting woes, was thrown up there for the final two games of the season – and has worked hard on her game as a finisher in recent seasons.
She ended the WBBL|11 regular season with 153 runs in eight innings at an average of 30 and strike rate of 131, including a season-best of 41no from 28 against the Scorchers.
Faltum is also second to Mooney in 'keeping dismissals for WBBL|11, with 10 to Mooney's 12.
"With the gloves, to be completely honest, I haven't quite had the season that I would have liked, especially at the front end of the tournament, but at the back end, I'm really pleased – I put in some work behind the scenes, and I think that's paid off in the last couple of games, and I'm back where I want to be from a glove point of view," she said.
"Anytime I can contribute with the bat, especially to get the team into a winning position, or to get them over the line, I'm really pleased, and I feel like I've been able to do that a couple of times this season.
"Our lower order has done a serious job in being able to win games for us."
While Mooney was generous to a fault with her wicketkeeping nous, the same cannot be expected when it comes to the Scorchers' final game of the season.
The Renegades broke a three-game losing streak and reclaimed fourth spot on the table with their win over the Sixers on Friday.
But to stay there and keep their title defence alive, they need the Strikers to lose their remaining games, and for the Scorchers to go down to the winless Heat on Saturday night.
"It was a really interesting feeling after losing (last Tuesday) – we'd set up our tournament really well and we were really confident, so then to lose a few games on the trot was hard and it was tough," Faltum said.
"But we're a very resilient group, and we love to have fun and take the game on and that's exactly what we did today.
"We've chucked it out into the universe and given ourselves the best chance of hopefully making finals - you never know what may happen."
Weber WBBL|11 Standings
| Team | M | W | L | T | N/R | NRR | Ded. | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
HUR
|
10 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0.662 | 0 | 15 |
|
2
STA
|
10 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0.629 | 0 | 11 |
|
3
SIX
|
9 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 1 | -0.365 | 0 | 11 |
|
4
REN
|
10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.121 | 0 | 10 |
|
5
SCO
|
9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | -0.189 | 0 | 10 |
|
6
STR
|
9 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0.097 | 0 | 9 |
|
7
THU
|
10 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 1 | -0.124 | 0 | 9 |
|
8
HEA
|
9 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 1 | -0.944 | 0 | 1 |
M: Matches played
W: Wins
L: Losses
T: Ties
N/R: No results
NRR: Net Run Rate
Ded.: Deductions
PTS: Total points