The secret to Darlington's success in WBBL|06

In the days leading up to WBBL|06, Hannah Darlington spoke of her determination to avoid any second-year blues. 

The 18-year-old, last season’s Rebel Young Gun, has gone well beyond that, claiming her place among the competition’s leading pace bowlers. 

Darlington bowled the Sydney Thunder into Saturday’s final with her spell of 3-19 against the Brisbane Heat, including two ripping yorkers at the death when the match hung in the balance. 

She had already secured a spot in the official Team of the Tournament earlier in the week, and now has 18 wickets at 13.61 after 13 matches this season. 

Only her Thunder teammate Sammy-Jo Johnson (20 wickets at 15.75) and the Melbourne Stars’ Natalie Sciver (19 at 15) have claimed more wickets, and Darlington’s economy rate of 6.44 and strike rate of 12.6 marginally outdoes both.  

Those returns have also exceeded her WBBL|05 efforts, where she was crowned the tournament’s best young player after taking 16 wickets at 21.31. 

On Thursday, she gave credit for her improvement to the work she had been doing with NSW coach Dom Thornley through the winter and pointed to teammate Phoebe Litchfield – another young gun who impressed in her maiden tournament last year – as another source of inspiration. 

"(Dom) stated bluntly that second-year blues are a thing, but the major thing for me was I’ve had Phoebe Litchfield by my side, who had the exact same tournament as I did last year and we’re really good mates and we just guided each other through it," Darlington said on Thursday night. 

"We did have a couple of conversations where we knew the second-year blues were a very possible thing and I think we’ve both come out here and proved it wrong." 

Ahead of the season, Darlington revealed to cricket.com.au the work she had been putting in behind the scenes to avoid such a scenario. 

Working on her change ups, as well as her fitness, through her first full pre-season with New South Wales had been key in order to stay one step ahead of her rivals. 

"I sat down at the start of the pre-season with our head coach and recognised there’s plenty of footage of me out there now, I can’t fly under the radar," Darlington said at the time. 

"I can’t turn up and have the exact same plans or change-ups, so we recognised quite early it was time to find a few new tricks and stay ahead of the game. 

"That’s the biggest thing. Batters can watch as much footage as they want but if I’m bringing out new tricks, it’s going to add another string to my bow." 

Darlington, whose level-headedness and maturity is apparent on and off the field, will face her biggest task to date on Saturday night when she and her Thunder teammates tackle the competition’s form team, the Melbourne Stars, in the final. 

The right-armer produced one of her best balls of the tournament the last time the sides faced off at Sydney Showground Stadium, a perfect yorker – something that is quickly becoming trademark Darlington – to bowl Australia and Stars captain Meg Lanning. 

"The key thing is for every player in our squad is to just prepare how we would for any other game," Darlington said of Saturday’s final. 

"It’s no different to any other game. 

"If you make a big hype about it, you’ll psych yourself out."