Quantcast

'Super League came at perfect time': Haynes

A hard slog in Brisbane and a stint in England's Super League has Australia vice-captain Rachael Haynes primed for a busy summer

Rachael Haynes says her maiden Super League season in the United Kingdom came at the perfect time, as the Australia vice-captain looks to fine-tune her Twenty20 game ahead of this November’s World T20 tournament.

Haynes will line up for Loughborough Lightning alongside Australia teammate Elyse Villani in today’s Super League Finals Day in Hove, with her team winning straight through to the tournament decider after finishing on top of the table.

With the semi-final and final to be played as a double-header, the Lightning will sit back and watch Western Storm take on Surrey Stars in the morning (8pm AEST) before they meet the winner from 1am Tuesday morning AEST.

In nine innings for the Lightning to date, Haynes has scored 307 runs at 51.16 to sit third on the overall runs table, form that will have her national coaches excited with one month remaining until Australia begin their T20I series against New Zealand at North Sydney Oval.

Before heading to the UK, Haynes spent much of the autumn and winter at Brisbane’s Bupa National Cricket Centre working on her batting game and fitness.

The Super League was then perfectly timed to give the left-hander a period to put that work to use in the middle, ahead of a hectic summer that will feature home limited-overs matches against New Zealand, an away tour against Pakistan, a World T20 in the Caribbean and the fourth edition of the Rebel WBBL.

“It was really beneficial to spend that period of time at the NCC and focus on getting my body ready for the season, and trying to work on some things as well heading into a big summer,” Haynes told cricket.com.au.

“Then it felt like a good time to me to come away and play in England, especially to play T20 cricket with a (T20) World Cup at the end of the year as well.

“It’s been beneficial for me and my cricket, that’s for sure.”

The 31-year-old wasn’t willing to give away the exact details of what she’d been working on, but Haynes is happy with how she’s performed for Loughborough.

“Sorry, I can’t give it away,” she laughed when asked about her secret new method. “But it’s one thing to work on new things in training but it’s another to bring it to life in a match.

“To have this block of time to go away and do those things under match pressure is really invaluable, so for me that was a key reason why I want to come over to the Super League.”

Immediately after the Super League final Haynes and Villani will return home, where they’ll have a few days to recover before linking up with their national teammates for a training camp in Queensland next week.

Australia will play New Zealand in three T20Is in Sydney (September 29), Brisbane (October 1) and Canberra (October 5).

CommBank T20 INTLs v NZ 

September 29: First T20I, North Sydney Oval, Sydney

October 1: Second T20I, Allan Border Field, Brisbane

October 5: Third T20I, Manuka Oval, Canberra

#WatchMe - Aussie stars to light up summer of cricket