“No, I love it,” she said before her debut, where she claimed the wicket of Deandra Dottin and collided with successful runs. “Ellyse Perry has definitely been a role model for me since I was very, very young. I think if you ask all my friends in grade school, every school project was about her, that’s for sure. I don’t think it’s anything scary o It’s overwhelming to be compared to her because she’s a great person and I love when people say that.
“I don’t think there can be any momentum left coming from this… I’m just trying to do the best I can and I’m cruel, being compared to Ellyse Perry is clearly great, but ultimately I’m still my own individual and I’m just aiming to do whatever I can.”
Four years ago, Bray took selfies with the Australian team at the World T20. “I think they actually gave Ellyse the speed for a yellow duck and I remember Mom telling me that I was crying in the stands when that happened.”
Now, on Sunday at the Adelaide Oval, Perry handed Bray his cap: “I was crying a little bit, maybe more than a little bit,” he said. Seven afterward, and stood next to her as she prepared to throw her first pitch. Dottin took her first ball for six, the second was bowled and should have been caught by Sarah Bryce and the third was bowled to the ground. But Bray responded by closing the end with a perfect yorker at the base of middle stump.
“My first step was a bit iffy…however handsome I was pleased with the wicket,” he said. “Suppose I needed to redeem myself for the previous ones.”
Then, with 32 needed off 20 balls, after Perry had blindly played 81 off 38, he came in and pushed his second ball for four. Bryce made a big dent in the requirement with four boundaries off six balls and Bray sealed the win with a lofted shot over the off side.
“There’s not a lot of expectations on me because I’m so young, but clearly I still want to do well, and I thought, I guess I’ll do it, it doesn’t take a lot of races and, yeah.” , she became pretty intelligently,” he mentioned.
“For a 15-year-old to hit a ball against a differentiated shield to win the sport is fantastic,” Perry said. Seven. “She bowls very smart too. She’s a really special girl.”
Like Perry, Bray is also a talented footballer who has represented the Junior Matildas. Despite a three-year contract with the Sixers, he wants to continue his dual sports career. “I got a couple of questions, and then they signed me to the Sixers,” he said last week. “They say to me, so will you continue playing football? I want to continue doing it for as long as possible and I think this guarantee from the WBBL will not prohibit me from playing.” American football.”
With travel from his home in Newcastle not practical during the WBBL, Bray will stay in Coogee with other interstate and overseas players during the competition. Her mom, Kim, will be with her, and her dad, Gavin, will visit from time to time. Both were in Adelaide on Sunday. You will do your schoolwork online.
It has been an extraordinarily rapid rise for Bray; It can hardly be anything else for a 15-year-old boy. Born in Denman, in the Hunter region of New South Wales, Bray played youth club cricket for their under-11 team when she was eight years old.
Last season he amassed 955 runs in the NSW Under-18 Brewer Shield and capped the season with 202 off 134 balls to lead Greater Hunter Central Coast to the title. In September, he was part of the Australian under-19 team for a tri-series in Brisbane, where he produced an outstanding performance against New Zealand with 84 and 4 for 20.
With so much happening in such a short time, have you had a chance to step back and reflect? “I really don’t think I did,” he said. “It certainly occurred to me temporarily. I haven’t been home much either, but I’m not complaining anymore. I love playing sports.”
Andrew McGlashan is Deputy Editor at ESPNcricinfo
