Lee's 'secret' a potential gamechanger for women

The Hobart Hurricanes' quest for their maiden Weber WBBL crown is alive, largely thanks to the exploits of opener Lizelle Lee and her "secret" weapon.

After a slowish start to the tournament, Lee took the WBBL by storm by smashing 150 not out against the Perth Scorchers, the highest score in the competition's decade-long history.

That was followed two days later with another century, this time against the Adelaide Strikers, making Lee the first player to hit consecutive WBBL hundreds.

When the Hurricanes take on the Sydney Thunder in the Knockout final on Wednesday – just the Canes' second finals appearance since 2016-17 – Lee will stride to the middle with a relatively new companion in her hands that to date, has brought her nothing but fortune.

The 32-year-old began this summer using a new bat, the physical properties of which are unconventional and the result of five years of development that bat-maker Josh Gavan touts as a gamechanger for female cricketers.

Dubbed by Gavan as "secret willow", the bat is created with a wood not from an English willow tree like traditional cricket blades, nor he insists, from the more common Kashmir or Australian varieties.

The result is a bat made from a lighter, softer – and cheaper – wood that is thicker than possible with English willow but weighs the same.

Lee, who admits she isn't a cricket bat nerd, explains that counterintuitively, her new bat that has enabled her to hit a WBBL|10 leading 18 sixes isn’t any lighter than her previous blades.

"The pickup and the sweet spot are amazing, but I think it's literally the weight that I really wanted," Lee told cricket.com.au.

"It really suits me …it might actually be a bit heavier (than my old bats), around 2lb 9oz."

English willow remains the pinnacle for bat-making, says Gavan, head bat-maker and founder of the eponymous JPGavan cricket, but the product "can be slightly restrictive in that (bats) don't necessarily become big at light weights.

“You have to take weight out, and that reduces the performance. So finding an alternate has been really, really important.

"At the top end, (secret willow) is very light willow. The trade-off is that it is a little bit more brittle, it's quite soft willow.

"Because the willow itself is naturally lighter, we leave the bats thicker. We're not making them any lighter, but we're leaving all the power in there."

Also used by the likes of Stars’ Rhys McKenna, who made headlines for her 21-ball half-century earlier in the tournament, Gavan believes the trade-off that the bats can be more brittle could lead to a change of mindset at the top end.

"I look at it a little bit like baseball bats," Gavan said. "Baseball bats are relatively cheap, made of wood. They break a little bit more often, and the players just replace them.

"So while these are the highest performing bats, we tend to give our players more bats. Instead of giving them two English Willow bats for the season, we might give them three or four in secret willow."

Lee however, is still on her trusty first secret willow blade, but not quite all of the 376 runs at 41.77 and a strike rate of 163.47 have come from the one blade.

The plan was to use the bat she scored 150 with in her very next outing, but an eagle-eyed Strikers' wicketkeeper Bridget Patterson, who also uses secret willow, noticed Lee had was wielding a different bat.

"I don't know how it happened," Lee recalled. "I went out with the wrong bat.

"Bridget basically told me, 'Oh, you're not even using the same bat you hit your 150 with?' I'm like, what do you mean? And I looked down, like, ‘oh my, it's the wrong bat!’

"I have tape around the middle and she noticed it. That was a little mistake by me, the bat didn't break."

With the price of English willow having gone up 50 per cent in the past two seasons, the secret willow bats retail for a third of the price of a bat made with the traditional wood, which Lee believes is a "fantastic" step forward to getting more females into the game.

"It would be great to see, especially younger girls, try and get more of those bats," Lee said.

"You have your regulars on the market … but they are sometimes a bit more on the expensive side, if you go the players (edition, top of the line).

"Secret willow are great bats and the price is really reasonable."

WBBL|10 Finals

The Knockout: Sydney Thunder v Hobart Hurricanes | Drummoyne Oval | Wednesday, November 27 at 7.15pm AEDT 

The Challenger: Brisbane Heat v TBC | Allan Border Field | Friday, November 29 at 7.15pm AEDT, 6.15pm AEDT

The Final: Melbourne Renegades v TBC | MCG | Sunday, December 1 at 1.20pm AEDT

Grab your tickets or tune in on the Seven Network, 7Plus, Fox Cricket, Kayo or ABC and SEN radio