Redmayne, Trenaman step up to silence doubts and doubters

It has been a contrasting few months for Rachel Trenaman and Georgia Redmayne.

Trenaman was part of the Hobart Hurricanes' maiden WBBL title win – and a second consecutive one in the T20 Spring Challenge – while Redmayne's Brisbane Heat ended without a single win.

But when the two opening bats found themselves leading their respective states sides as stand-in captains on the return to the WNCL, the fortunes flipped towards Redmayne.

On Tuesday, she registered a crucial century and led Queensland Fire to back-to-back wins over Trenaman's Tasmanian Tigers, continuing her side's unbeaten run in the 50-over tournament in regular skipper Jess Jonassen's absence.

With her 125 not out, Redmayne also sent a reminder of her ability at the start of the innings after spending WBBL|11 in middle and lower-middle order.

She started that tournament in November at eight and moved up to four but never opened even though the Heat tinkered with multiple opening combinations in the absence of Grace Harris and didn't have any results go their way.

"I do love opening, no matter what the format," Redmayne stated after her knock. "It's nice to get back in the swing of it and win some games."

In a home coming of sorts for the keeper-batter, her eighth WNCL ton came at the familiar Bellerive Oval, where she played for the Hurricanes in the initial years of the WBBL.

"It was a nice little moment to come back," she said. "It's a beautiful place to play cricket, so certainly very pleased to get that."

"I think 10 years ago was probably when I hit my first 100 (and) it was here."

With senior players like Jonassen, Grace Harris and Charli Knott away due to injury and Women's Premier League (WPL) commitments, the 32-year-old was tasked with leading a group packed with inexperienced names.

But Redmayne was impressed by the maturity shown by the young talent on the trip to Hobart.

"I feel very old out there," she joked. "It was nice when Lauren Winfield-Hill came in (in the second game) and upped the group average a little bit."

"We knew we're going to be up against it.

"Just really proud of the way that we've gone about it, and done our job, no matter who is on the park.

"I thought the way Mik (Mikayla Wrigley) and Bourkey (Lucy Bourke) batted that first game, batting under pressure and batting for long periods of time, it's something that we've been missing for a long time in our Queensland team.

"It's really good that we've come out with really good 50 over patience."

Redmayne also led the Fire in the finals of the last two seasons while Jonassen was away for the WPL, but the side fell short of the title on both occasions.

But Redmayne views those results from a positive lens as the side looks in a good position to make it to another title clash.

"It's great that we're making finals," she mused. "(It is) certainly better than not winning a game in Big Bash this year."

"We'd rather get ourselves back in the Grand Final.

"You take learnings from it, especially with a younger group."

Tasmania, too, know a thing or two about making finals, having played and won three in a row from 2022 to 2024.

But unlike Redmayne, Trenaman had no prior experience of captaincy at the senior level when she was unexpectedly thrown the role this week between the two games.

The opportunity came after Elyse Villani injured her calf in the first game on Sunday. With vice-captain Nicola Carey away for the WPL, Tasmania coach Jude Coleman identified the 24-year-old for the job.

The Tigers put in a fair effort in the field with Trenaman leading the troops, with none of the Queensland batter barring Redmayne crossing 35.

Trenaman was disappointed a lack of runs from the top order didn't allow them to chase down 287, but fighting half-centuries from Hayley Silver-Holmes and Lauren Smith in the lower order left her proud of the effort.

"I thought we were pretty good with the ball," she told the media on Wednesday.

"We hung in there, were really patient, took some good wickets in the back end, and our plans really paid off.

"Really disappointing for the top six ... Four or five of us got starts.

"But the tail did well to not let us get rolled for 130, and showed a fair bit of grit and fight and character.

"I think that's what this Tassie team's about."

Despite the result, the addition of the 'c' next to her name on the team list is a milestone in her cricketing journey Trenaman would not have expected to reach this soon, a journey she contemplated ending two years ago.

The NSW-born player made a return to play in February last year after a long battle with repeated injuries that left her questioning her future in the sport.

But the returns were immediate as she hit 63, 80no and 124 in her first three innings back in the WNCL before earning a call-up to the Australia A side for a red-ball game in April.

She started the current season equally strong and is currently the second-highest run-scorer in the tournament with 307 runs in six innings and a high score of 95no.

Trenaman expects Villani to be back for Tasmania's next rounds of games against Western Australia on January 28 and 30 but says she will be ready to step up whenever the team requires her.

WNCL 2025-26 standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Total points PTS
1 Queensland Fire QLD	6	6	0	0	0	0.838	0	3	27
2 NSW Women NSW	4	4	0	0	0	1.077	0	1	17
3 Tasmanian Tigers Women TAS	6	3	3	0	0	0.692	0	3	15
4 ACT Meteors ACT	4	2	2	0	0	0.371	0	1	9
5 Western Australia Women WA	5	1	4	0	0	-0.72	0	1	5
6 South Australia Women SA	3	1	2	0	0	-0.644	0	0	4
7 Victoria Women VIC	6	0	6	0	0	-1.53	1	0	-1

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

PTS: Total points