WT20 crown the perfect farewell

Winning the Women’s Twenty20 final was the perfect end to what may potentially be the Lend Lease Breakers’ last game in the format, captain Alex Blackwell says.

NSW dominated the final against the Commonwealth Bank VicSpirit, cruising to a 52-run victory at Manuka Oval.

Next season, Australia’s best female players could be padding up in the inaugural season of a women’s Big Bash League, meaning state colours would only be worn in the 50-over Women’s National Cricket League.

“What we wanted to do was make sure that possibly our last game in Twenty20 for the Breakers was a victory,” Blackwell said.

“Things might change next season, there’s talk about a women’s BBL so this might be the last time we wear the light blue and we wanted to make it a really good game and a fantastic finish for our season.”

Alex Blackwell on the Breakers' twin domestic titles

A project team has been established to prepare for the competition to launch in 2015-16, although the structure and format of the tournament, the number of teams and the allocation of players has yet to be confirmed.

“Next year we plan to extend the power and reach of Twenty20 cricket even further through the introduction of a Women’s Big Bash League,” said a Cricket Australia spokesperson.

“We think the introduction of a Women’s BBL, which capitalises on the brand strength of the established men’s competition could provide an exciting career path for talented female athletes around the country.

“There is still a lot of work to do before we can make that a reality, but we have high hopes for what will be an important step in further professionalising women’s cricket in Australia.”

If the women’s Big Bash League does begin next season, NSW will retain a special place in history as the only team to win both the WNCL and WT20 titles in the same season.

This week marked the second time they achieved the feat, having also completed the double in 2012-13.

“This is a really special moment for moment for us,” said Blackwell, named player of the match after scoring 72 runs off 43 balls.

“To be the only team to win both the WT20 and WNCL in one year and now we’ve done it twice so I’m very happy.

“As a captain, to go out there and put some runs on the board and set up a win for us was really pleasing.

“I’m very happy with the team. I didn’t think we’d win as well as we did, this is the sort of finals victory I’ve been hoping for.”

Australia’s best female cricketers were in fine form in the final.

NSW pacer Ellyse Perry was unlucky not to collect a wicket but her miserly bowling ensured VicSpirit was on the back foot in their run chase from the beginning.

She conceded nine runs during her four-over spell at an economy rate of 2.25.

Erin Osborne was the destroyer late for the Breakers

A five-wicket haul to Erin Osborne and some big hitting from Leah Poulton helped NSW to the convincing victory.

“I’m really proud of Erin, she bowled so well in the back end,” Blackwell said.

“I think our medium pacers set it up for us today.”

VicSpirit captain Meg Lanning, who on Tuesday was crowned the Australian women's cricketer of the year for a second consecutive season, entertained the crowd with 72 off 42 including the biggest six of the day at the 15.4-over mark when she smashed the ball clear over the Manuka Oval fence.

Manuka Oval wasn't big enough to hold Meg Lanning

“We knew if we could play to our potential the game would be really close and we could potentially win, but unfortunately they were too good for us today,” Lanning said after the match.

Lanning finished the season as VicSpirit’s leading run scorer with 445 runs at 49.44.

“It’s nice as a top-order batter to be scoring runs and lots of them, so it was pleasing from a personal perspective to be really consistent throughout the year, but I play to win and unfortunately we haven’t been able to win any of the titles this year,” she said.

Australia captain Lanning and her Southern Stars teammates will not play another match now until the 2015 Women’s Ashes series begins on July 21.

“It’s interesting, we don’t have another game until The Ashes so our training is going to be important,” Lanning said.

“We’ve got a little bit of a break now and then we get back into training.

“It’s going to be a great challenge for us going over to England and hopefully knocking England off.

“I think we’ve definitely got the team to do it.”

Meg Lanning speaks to cricket.com.au after the tough loss