Leah Poulton

Leah Joy Poulton (born 27 February 1984 ) is an Australian former cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia. She played as a specialist batter who usually opened the batting.

Poulton came to prominence in youth cricket by captaining New South Wales to the Under-17 national championships in 2000. In 2002–03, she made her senior debut for New South Wales in the Women's National Cricket League (WNCL). She found runs hard to come by in her first three seasons and was in and out of the team frequently, aggregating only 24 runs in her second and third seasons combined. Despite this, she regularly captained Australia's Under-19 and Under-23 teams during this time, leading the latter on a successful tour of Sri Lanka in 2004. In 2005–06, she made a substantial impact on the WNCL for the first time, scoring 325 runs, more than twice her previous best season's total, playing in the first of five consecutive WNCL triumphs for New South Wales.

Poulton was rewarded with international selection in the Rose Bowl series against New Zealand at the start of the 2006–07 season and scored her maiden century, 101, in the third match. However, after a poor tour of India at the end of the season, she was dropped from the Australian team in mid-2007 and continued to be overlooked after a poor WNCL season in 2007–08. During the 2008 Australian winter, she travelled to play for Nottinghamshire in England, and earned herself a recall to the Australian team at the start of the 2008–09 southern hemisphere season. After scoring 376 runs at a batting average of 41.77 in the 2008–09 WNCL, Poulton retained her position in the national team for the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup and the 2009 World Twenty20. She was a regular member of the playing team in both tournaments, participating all the matches in the latter. In 2009, Poulton made her Test debut against England and in 2009–10, she hit her second One Day International (ODI) century, 104 not out against New Zealand. and announced retirement from all forms from the game in March 2015. While announcing her ODI retirement, she said that it was the Twenty20 format that strengthened her love for cricket, and if not for T20s, she would have retired sooner.

Youth cricket Poulton is from Elermore Vale in the New South Wales coastal city of Newcastle, and played for the Wallsend Cricket Club in the city. She grew up in Newcastle, before moving to Sydney. She attended Lambton High School. Outside of cricket, she works as a physical education teacher.

In March 2000, soon after turning 16, she played for New South Wales in the national Under-17 championships. She scored 141 runs at a batting average of 23.50 and took two wickets at a bowling average of 15.50 as New South Wales defeated Victoria Blue to win the competition. Victoria qualified first and thus hosted the finals, defeating New South Wales 2–0 in a best-of-three series. Poulton made only 1 and 11 in the deciding matches, which were lost by 3 wickets and 40 runs respectively. captaining her state. In five innings, she made three half-centuries, with a best of 73 against Queensland in the final, which New South Wales won by five wickets. She was unbeaten in the other two fifties after opening the batting; New South Wales completed ten-wicket wins in both instances. Poulton ended the competition with 191 runs at 63.66. She was rewarded with selection in and captaincy of the national Under-19 team during the season and played in two matches against England Under-19s, scoring 13 and 35 as Australia won both matches. At the end of the season, she was selected to lead an Australian Under-23 team to play against the senior England team. Poulton made 15 in her only innings. Victoria had qualified first and hosted the three-match series. Poulton was omitted for the first match, However, Poulton contributed little to the team's triumph, managing only 16 runs at 5.33. scoring 127 runs at 31.75 with a best of 75 in the second of these fixtures. Sarah Tsukigawa had success against Poulton, dismissing her three times in a row. Australia won all but the last match. The tourists played four one-dayers against the host nation's senior team and won all but the abandoned third match. New South Wales lost the finals 2–1 after finishing the regular season first and earning the right to host the series. Poulton batted only three times and accumulated eight runs at 4.00 but New South Wales nevertheless won all of these five matches. Up to this point, Poulton had only scored 24 runs at 6.00 in four WNCL finals matches and had been dropped ahead of the deciding series the previous season. She made 28 of her state's 154 as Queensland took the series to a deciding match with a three-wicket win in the second match. Poulton was dismissed for five in the deciding match as New South Wales were bowled out for 146, before dismissing the visitors for 144 to claim a two-run win and the WNCL. Poulton bowled for the first time in the WNCL, conceding 18 runs from two overs. She was the first player to score 1,500 runs in Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup, and the only player to score a century for New South Wales in Women's Twenty20 cricket. The chairman of selectors Margaret Jennings said "She is a talented player with a free-flowing game, and we are keen to see how she performs against New Zealand, whom we expect to provide some very tough competition." the hosts eventually scraped home for a one-run victory.

During the 2006–07 season, Poulton played in all 11 of New South Wales' WNCL matches, scoring 227 runs at 20.63. Poulton ended the season with four wickets at 8.75 at an economy rate of 3.75. She also played in two Twenty20 interstate matches, top-scoring with 69 in the first match against South Australia, before making 35 against Western Australia; New South Wales won both games.

During the Australian winter of 2008, Poulton travelled to England and played for Nottinghamshire in the Women's County Championship. After making a duck on debut for the county, she made 68 in the next match against Sussex and ended her stay with 150 runs at 25.00 from six matches. She bowled 20.4 overs for the county, taking a total of 0/95. She was in better form for the Sapphires in the Super Fours, scoring three half-centuries in four innings and ending with 215 runs at 53.75 in four List A matches. She also top-scored in both T20 matches for the Sapphires, making 32 and 47. She also took 2/23 in the latter match,

These performances earned Poulton a recall for the five-match home ODI series against India ahead of the 2008–09 Australian season, which the hosts swept easily; the margins of victory in each match were at least 54 runs or seven wickets.

World Cup

Australia toured New Zealand before the World Cup, and Poulton was dropped into the middle-order. She made four in the first two matches, both of which the hosts won. She struggled in these matches, taking 15 and 18 balls to score the four runs in either ODI, She then hit 38 from 47 balls, including a six, Poulton scored 39 to push Australia to 5/163 but the hosts reached the target with eight wickets in hand and progressed to the final, which they won. Poulton is the 158th woman to play Test cricket for Australia. After making a duck in her first innings back, Poulton struck an unbeaten 104 from 116 balls in the fourth match, hitting nine fours and three sixes, putting on an unbroken opening stand of 163 with Shelley Nitschke as the Australians won by ten wickets. She made seven in the final match as the Australians completed a 5–0 sweep of the home ODI leg of the series. Poulton had little success in the T20s in Australia, scoring 0, 24 and 1 as the tourists bounced back to claim a whitewash. She then scored only one in the first T20 during the New Zealand leg of the tour and was left out for the second match, which the hosts won to sweep the T20s. Poulton played in all three ODIs in New Zealand, scoring 7, 47 and 31 as the Australians again swept the 50-over matches. In the last warm-up match, she hammered 44 from 21 balls including two sixes and then took a catch to remove Armaan Khan as Australians made 5/166 and defeated Pakistan by 82 runs.

Australia were grouped with England, South Africa and the West Indies. In the first match against England, Poulton ran out Laura Marsh, triggering the loss of the last four wickets without the addition of a run, in six balls, leaving 15 deliveries unused.

A Super Over eventuated, and Marsh bowled for England. Farrell and Poulton batted for Australia. Poulton scored a single off the first ball she faced, before being caught by Colvin on the fourth ball. This left Australia at 1/4 and they ended at 2/6. England also ended with 2/6 after a run out in an attempt to secure the winning run on the final ball. Australia was awarded the match because they had hit more sixes in the match—Jess Cameron scored the solitary six. In the final group match against the West Indies, Poulton came in at 1/33 and hit 15 from 13 balls, including three fours. Australia finished on 7/133 and won by nine runs to finish the group stage unbeaten at the top of their quartet.

Australia went on to face India in the semi-final. Chasing a target of 120, Poulton came in to join captain Blackwell—who had promoted herself up the order—at 2/75, with 45 runs needed from 56 balls. Poulton hit 30 from 26 balls to seal an Australian victory with seven wickets and seven balls to spare. She brought up the winning runs with a lofted drive that bounced once before going for four runs. In the final against New Zealand, Australia started poorly after electing to bat. Nitschke fell in the third over to bring Poulton in at 1/10, before Villani and Blackwell fell quickly to leave Australia at 3/20 in the sixth over. This was followed by a consolidating partnership of 30 between Poulton and Cameron, but they were unable to lift the run rate substantially; their stand took 45 balls. Poulton was caught trying to loft a ball over cover, and two balls later, Cameron was bowled, leaving Australia at 5/51 in the 13th over. Only Poulton managed a solitary boundary. A later burst took Australia to 8/106 from their 20 overs and Poulton ended with the highest score of 20 from 28 balls. The Australians then restricted New Zealand to 6/103 to complete a three-run win. Poulton was Australian's highest run-scorer for the tournament and the third among all players.

One Day International centuries Source: CricInfo

Post-retirement Poulton was the assistant coach of Sydney Thunder when they won their maiden title in 2015-16 season. She continued to be involve with New South Wales after her retirement as the Female Pathway Breaker and then the assistant coach of New South Wales women's team. She later moved to the Cricket Australia's high-performance centre and coached the women's teams of Australia A, Australia Under-19s and Australia Under-15s. She oversaw for introduction of the Under-19 and A team programmes, and the first overseas tour of both the teams. Less than a month later, she resigned from the job and was appointed as the head of female cricket at Cricket NSW.

Personal life Poulton's partner is current Australia cricketer Rachael Haynes. Poulton gave birth to their first child, Hugo Poulton-Haynes, in October 2021.