Fiery 'Gades quick ready for wild West

Australia fast bowler Tayla Vlaeminck is set to be unleashed on the WACA Ground this weekend when her Melbourne Renegades meet the Perth Scorchers in back-to-back Rebel WBBL matches.

Already considered one of the fastest bowlers in the WBBL despite being just 20 years old, Vlaeminck is eagerly anticipating her first interstate trip with the Renegades, as well as her first visit to the iconic WACA Ground, and has set her sights set on the prized wicket of Scorchers No.3 – and her national teammate – Nicole Bolton.

The pair were part of the Australian side that claimed the World T20 title in the Caribbean last month and Vlaeminck is now looking forward to taking their battles from the training nets to the middle.

“Me and Bolts have had a few good contests in the nets of late,” Vlaeminck said in Melbourne on Wednesday. “There’s been a bit of banter between us in the nets so hopefully I can bowl well to her on the weekend.

“It’ll be pretty hot over there but we’re all keen to get on the road together and I think we’ll have a lot of fun and hopefully we can get some good results.”

Vlaeminck made her Australian T20 debut during that successful World T20 campaign, incredibly playing for her country before she’d even played her first Big Bash game after a string of serious injuries had curtailed her past two summers.

Those ailments include two ruptured ACLs and a dislocated shoulder, limiting the Bendigo product to running drinks through her first two seasons in red.

But she made an immediate impact when finally handed a Big Bash debut on the opening weekend of WBBL|04 earlier this month, capturing four wickets.

She hasn’t managed to collect a wicket in the matches that have followed, but still looms as a major weapon for the finals hopefuls.

The novelty of stringing together a series of injury-free matches hasn’t been lost on the 20-year-old either.

“It’s awesome, I’m having a really good time out there and while the results aren’t going the way we like, we’re still producing some good patches of cricket,” she said.

“I think once we can put a few more of those together we’ll be right and we’re only going upwards from here.”

Vlaeminck had a scare during Sunday’s match against the Brisbane Heat in Geelong, slipping over in her delivery stride in wet conditions.

She was switched out of the attack, but off-spinner Molly Strano explained at the time it was simply precautionary and Vlaeminck confirmed she was fully fit for the weekend’s matches.

“I’m fine, I hit the deck pretty hard and it was pretty slippery out there but I’m fine which is the good thing,” Vlaeminck said.

The Renegades have one win from four matches to date and sit seventh on the table, making this weekend’s matches particularly important for both sides.

Despite a slow start, Strano said she was confident the Renegades could still push for finals.

“That’s the great thing about this tournament, it’s a 14-game tournament so there’s still a long way to go and plenty of games to be played,” Strano said.

“But we’re going to have to gel and click better as a unit to pip some wins there or it could potentially be a long season.

“We have a lot of confidence we can turn it around, history is repeating itself (because) we’ve tended to start slower and get better towards the back end of the tournament, so we’re hoping we can do that this year as well.”