AUSTRALIA’S newest cricket star Annabel Sutherland added another honour to her resume on Monday night, claiming the Belinda Clark Award for the nation’s most outstanding female cricketer.<\/p>\n
While she’s just 23, the Victorian has been playing international cricket for her country since 2020 and everything came together for the all-rounder in 2024, particularly in the Test format as she was awarded top votes for Australia’s two red-ball games over the year.<\/p>\n
Although her individual success hasn’t quite sunk in yet, Sutherland reflected on a whirlwind few weeks where the Aussies dominated the women’s Ashes, winning every match against England on home soil.<\/p>\n
“Probably not quite yet, hopefully I get a few quiet moments this afternoon to soak it up,” Sutherland told SEN’s Gerard Whateley.<\/p>\n
“It’s been highlighted by the last few weeks with how the team has gone about their business and the success we’ve had.<\/p>\n
“It was capped off by an amazing event at the MCG winning that day-night Test.<\/p>\n
“I mean, we don’t get to play them a whole lot and we’d love to play them more, but it’s special to pull on the baggy green.”<\/p>\n
Another honour that Sutherland picked up in the last week was becoming the first female to score a Test hundred at the MCG with her score of 163 in Australia’s first innings.<\/p>\n
With her name now up on the famous MCG honour board, Sutherland hopes that other females can soon join her, as Beth Mooney eventually did later in the innings with her score of 106.<\/p>\n
“It’s tough to put into words, to be honest,” Sutherland said.<\/p>\n
“I was a little bit shocked to come off and hear that I was the first female Test cricketer to score a hundred there.<\/p>\n
“Hopefully that can change a little bit going forward and we can play a bit more at the biggest grounds, around the country.<\/p>\n
“But it was nice that Beth Mooney was able to join me pretty quickly after.”<\/p>\n
BY SEN\/LACHLAN GELEIT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AUSTRALIA’S newest cricket star Annabel Sutherland added another honour to her resume on Monday night, claiming the Belinda Clark Award for the nation’s most outstanding female cricketer. While she’s just 23, the Victorian has been playing international cricket for her country since 2020 and everything came together for the all-rounder in 2024, particularly in the […]<\/p>\n