Unbeaten NSW scrape past Queensland by barest of margins

New South Wales have overcome their toughest test of the season to date but emerged with a thrilling one-wicket win over Queensland at Cricket Central.

The Breakers are the only unbeaten team in the WNCL – with a perfect record from their eight matches – and were made to scrap in a low-scoring match against last year's runners up.

It was yet another heart-breaking result for the Fire, who also lost by a sole wicket to South Australia only two weeks ago.

Chasing only 189 to win, NSW had to rely on their lower order, rather than their all-star top order, to get the job done.

From 6-134, Maitlan Brown (41) and Sarah Coyte (19) played pivotal knocks and got their side to within 14 runs for victory.

But a collapse of 3-2, which included both set batters and a disastrous run out to Frankie Nicklin, left final pairing Lauren Cheatle (9no) and Sam Bates (4no) with 12 runs to get, which they managed with 31 balls to spare.

The win solidifies NSW's spot on top of the table, as they now sit nine points clear of the still-second Queensland.

Earlier, Cheatle again proved why she's one of the best new-ball bowlers in the country with two wickets in her first two overs.

She dismissed Tuesday's centurion Georgia Redmanyne with the second ball of the match and removed Charli Knott, fresh off the plane from the Women's Premier League one ball into her second over.

Several Fire batters got starts but none could go large with opener Mikalya Wrigley's 46 the team's top score.

Cheatle (4-32) was excellent at both ends of the innings while off-spinner Nicklin (3-33) put in the best performance of her career with the big wickets of Wrigley and Jess Jonassen.

The Fire's 188 seemed well under par but when superstars Alyssa Healy (4) and Ellyse Perry (23) where out early, the Queenslanders were in with a sniff.

Spinners Jonassen (1-26) and Grace Parsons (3-47) were excellent but had to bowl the bulk of their overs early in the innings in order to keep the Fire in the game.  

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 NSW Women NSW	10	10	0	0	0	1.134	0	4	44
2 Queensland Fire QLD	10	6	4	0	0	0.072	0	3	27
3 South Australia Women SA	10	6	3	0	1	-0.138	0	1	27
4 Western Australia Women WA	10	6	4	0	0	0.039	0	2	26
5 ACT Meteors ACT	10	4	5	0	1	-0.114	0	1	19
6 Tasmanian Tigers Women TAS	12	3	9	0	0	0.002	0	3	15
7 Victoria Women VIC	10	0	10	0	0	-1.028	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