Amanda-Jade Wellington commentated on fellow Australians starring in The Hundred but has now roared back to business on the pitch in the county game
After a spell in the commentary box watching other Australian cricketers shining, evergreen international Amanda-Jade Wellington has got back to her day job in impressive fashion.
The 29-year-old Adelaide luminary, who so often thrives in white-ball tournaments, went unsold, rather surprisingly, in the auction for the recent edition of The Hundred, despite being one of the event’s all-time leading wicket-takers.
Instead, the leg-spinner took up the chance to sideline as a TV commentator for the BBC during the event, while admitting it all felt a little bit odd to be commenting on colleagues like title-winning Trent Rockets stars Beth Mooney and Ashleigh Gardner.
But the woman who’s taken 52 scalps in The Hundred was itching to get back into action following her enjoyable broadcasting spell and on Wednesday, Wellington returned with a brilliant match-winning display for Hampshire in England’s Women’s One-Day Cup.
Wellington took a season’s-best 4-37 off her 10 overs after Hampshire’s in-form captain Georgia Adams won the toss and put Surrey in to bat at Guildford, ripping out the hosts’ middle-order.
Adams, fresh from her match-winning display in Sunday’s Hundred final at Lord’s, chipped in with three wickets as Surrey were bowled out for 228 and then dominated Hampshire’s chase with a brilliant 115 off 103 balls, including 15 fours and two sixes.
Wellington fell cheaply for eight off 12 balls as she came in to try to finish the job but Hampshire still eased to a four-wicket win.
It was their fourth-straight group win in the competition to keep their hopes alive of an automatic spot in the final on their home Southampton turf.
The pacesetters in the tournament remain the Nottingham-based Blaze, who rattled up a huge 4-356 total in their 59-run (D/L method) victory over Durham Women at Trent Bridge thanks to centuries from Kathryn Bryce (136) and Georgia Elwiss (134no).
