Tigers to carry 'valuable' Strano if 80 per cent fit

Two-time reigning Women's National Cricket League champions Tasmania are prepared to carry an "80 per cent" fit Molly Strano into Saturday's decider against Queensland as she races to recover from a broken hand.

Strano is the Tigers' equal leading wicket-taker this season but missed their last three games of the home-and-away campaign after breaking her hand while batting against Western Australia on February 1.

And such is the off-spinner's influence on the Tigers' quest for a historic WNCL three-peat that Cricket Tasmania high performance general manager Salliann Beams has declared that Strano will play at Blundstone Arena on Saturday as long as she can control the ball coming out of her hand.

"Even if she's 80 per cent, I think we've got to go with her still because she's that valuable," Beams told reporters today.

"She's our leading wicket-taker (with 17, equal with Lauren Smith) … she's absolutely vital.

"She sets the tone with the ball from the off, and she doesn't give any width and she's really tight.

"As long as she can control the ball as it comes out of her hand, I'm happy.

"But there is a risk if she does get hit with a ball, how is she going to cope with that?

"You can't hide in the field, but we will do our best to manage that and I think you can get away with it in 50-over cricket."

Beams said the final decision would be a collective one with head coach Jude Coleman, Strano and their medical team but they wouldn't risk the 31-year-old if there was the potential for long-term consequences.

"She will be doing everything to play in this game, she is a true competitor (and) she wants to play in every final," Beams said.

"She'd never won (a final) before she came to Tassie and now she's had potentially three in a row.

"We will go on how she feels. She knows she won't want to let the team down so if there's any doubt in her mind that she's going to do that, she would pull herself out.

"I'm confident she's going to get up for it."

Tasmania captain Elyse Villani is a confirmed starter for Saturday's showpiece after missing their final game of the regular season against Victoria due to inflammation in her shoulder.

The Tigers are seeking to become just the second state to win three WNCL titles in a row after NSW, who lifted the trophy 20 times in its first 23 years since the competition's inception in 1996-97.

Tasmania have won 26 of their past 30 completed WNCL matches since December 2021 and Beams said they weren't getting complacent despite two of those losses coming in their past four games.

"They know that the pressure's on them being the champions for the last two years," she said.

"We've got a great leader in Elyse Villani as well who controls those little conversations that she hears and keeps people on the process side of things.

"We probably were disappointed with how we've done in those (two) games because we were in winning positions.

"But there was plenty that's come out of that. I expect teams to be coming to us going ‘which one of our middle- to lower-order is going to have a day out’, because they always do.

"Normally what is happening with our team is if someone's failing, someone else puts their hand up."

WNCL 2023-24 standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Total points PTS
1 Tasmanian Tigers Women TAS	12	9	2	0	1	0.98	0	5	43
2 Queensland Fire QLD	12	8	3	0	1	1.224	0	7	41
3 Victoria Women VIC	12	7	5	0	0	0.013	0	4	32
4 Western Australia Women WA	12	6	6	0	0	-0.113	0	4	28
5 NSW Women NSW	12	6	6	0	0	-0.105	0	2	26
6 South Australia Women SA	12	4	8	0	0	-0.063	0	3	19
7 ACT Meteors ACT	12	1	11	0	0	-2.006	0	0	4

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

PTS: Total points