Missed call a mere hiccup as Brown seizes her chance

Darcie Brown panicked when she saw the missed call from national selector Shawn Flegler last Monday.

The 17-year-old South Australia quick was in Sydney for the following day’s domestic 50-over match against Victoria, hanging out with roommate Samantha Betts when she glanced at her phone and noticed the alert.

"I had his phone number saved in my phone and I was like, do I ring him back, do I not? ... I kind of didn’t want to ring him back," a laughing Brown told reporters in Adelaide on Saturday.

"But then he sent me a message to ring him back as soon as possible."

Flegler was calling with the best possible news: Brown had just been selected in an Australia squad for the first time, for next month's CommBank tour of New Zealand.

Brown had not been aware the Australia squad was being selected that day, and had no reason to suspect the call would be bad news.

The trepidation may simply have been the realisation she was on the cusp of a life-changing moment, the latest in a series for a teenager whose rise through the ranks has been nothing short of meteoric.

"I wasn’t expecting it," Brown, who only made her Adelaide Strikers debut in the Rebel WBBL earlier this summer, said.

"I’m just keen to even sit on the sidelines and learn from the girls, it would be a cool experience."

Brown has already established a reputation as one of the fastest female bowlers in the country, capable of pushing the speedometer beyond 120kph.

She was crowned the WBBL|06 Young Gun after taking 10 wickets at 22.1 through the season.

Her call-up came as no surprise to her state captain and new Australia teammate Megan Schutt, who has watched the right-armer evolve since being spotted by talent scouts in her early teens.

"She’s shown her promise very early, we’ve seen her speed from a young age but to be able to control it the way she does at 17 … we saw that at the Big Bash tournament and she was named rookie of the season for a reason," Schutt said.

"The last couple of (WNCL) games she’s blown them out of the water and deservedly been called up."

At times the sole South Australian in the Australia squad, Schutt is happy to have company in Brown and allrounder Tahlia McGrath.

But before their departure for Christchurch on March 13 they are focusing on the job at hand – putting the Scorpions in the best possible position on the WNCL table.

Currently, the Scorpions are 2-2 after four games, and pushed undefeated Victoria to the wire last week.

Their next task will be against a strong NSW Breakers line-up, featuring the likes of Australia stars Rachael Haynes and Ashleigh Gardner, in their first home game of the summer at Karen Rolton Oval on Sunday.

"The two we’ve lost were very close games, which shows if we’re 10 per cent better on the day, we’re capable of beating any team," Schutt said.

"(NSW’s) Australian players are absolute quality, the good thing is we’ve bowled to each other a thousand times which makes it really good competition.

"But I actually think it’s their domestic players, Hannah Darlington, Rachel Trenaman, who are really stepping up for them in a side that’s lost a few players."

CommBank tour of New Zealand 2021

Australia ODI & T20I Squad: Meg Lanning (c), Rachael Haynes (vc), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Hannah Darlington, Ashleigh Gardner, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham, Belinda Vakarewa, Tayla Vlaeminck

1st T20: March 28, Seddon Park, Hamilton, 5.10pm AEDT

2nd T20: March 30, McLean Park, Napier, 1pm AEDT

3rd T20: April 1, Eden Park, Auckland, 1pm AEDT

1st ODI: April 4, Bay Oval, Tauranga, 9am AEDT

2nd ODI: April 7, Bay Oval, Tauranga, 12noon AEDT

3rd ODI: April 10, Bay Oval, Tauranga, 12noon AEDT

All matches will be shown live in Australia on Fox Cricket and Kayo