90 Facts About Leah Poulton

Leah Joy Poulton was born on 27 February 1984 and is an Australian former cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia.

Leah Poulton played as a specialist batter who usually opened the batting.

Leah Poulton 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.

Leah Poulton was a regular member of the playing team in both tournaments, participating all the matches in the latter.

Leah Poulton announced her ODI retirement in December 2012, and announced retirement from all forms from the game in March 2015.

Leah Poulton is from Elermore Vale in the New South Wales coastal city of Newcastle, and played for the Wallsend Cricket Club in the city.

Leah Poulton grew up in Newcastle, before moving to Sydney.

Leah Poulton 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.

Leah Poulton made two ducks and ended the tournament with 188 runs at 31.33; New South Wales won all of their six matches.

Leah Poulton ended the WNCL season with 159 runs at 19.87 as New South Wales came second, ending a run of six consecutive titles.

Leah Poulton made only 1 and 11 in the deciding matches, which were lost by 3 wickets and 40 runs respectively.

Leah Poulton was unbeaten in the other two fifties after opening the batting; New South Wales completed ten-wicket wins in both instances.

Leah Poulton 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.

Leah Poulton was omitted for the first match, which was won by the home team, before being recalled for the second match.

Leah Poulton made 1 and 11 as New South Wales won the last two fixtures by five and three wickets respectively to claim the title.

However, Leah Poulton contributed little to the team's triumph, managing only 16 runs at 5.33.

Sarah Tsukigawa had success against Leah Poulton, dismissing her three times in a row.

Leah Poulton was then made captain of the Australian Under-23 team for a tour of Sri Lanka in September 2004.

Leah Poulton then made her debut in non-one-day cricket against the Sri Lankans, scoring 10 before being run out.

Leah 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, Leah 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.

Leah Poulton 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.

Leah 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.

Leah Poulton ended the season with 325 runs at 32.50 as New South Wales won 9 of their 11 matches to claim the title.

Leah Poulton bowled for the first time in the WNCL, conceding 18 runs from two overs.

Leah Poulton won the Belinda Clark Medal four times, for the best performance for New South Wales in a season.

Leah Poulton 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.

Leah Poulton made 10 in her Twenty20 international debut and the match ended in a tie.

Leah Poulton said that she was "way too nervous" during her maiden innings.

Leah Poulton scored her first ODI runs in the following match, making 16 from 25 balls with 4 fours as the hosts won by a single wicket with a ball to spare.

Leah Poulton made only 12 in the final match as the hosts completed a clean sweep of the ODIs with a four-wicket win.

Leah Poulton is the 107th woman to play One Day International cricket for Australia.

Leah Poulton scored 17 and 39 in the first two matches, both times being run out.

Leah Poulton ended the season with one wicket at 63.00 at an economy rate of 3.50.

Leah Poulton scored only 8 and 0 from 21 and 8 balls respectively as Australia lost their first two matches against New Zealand and India respectively.

Leah Poulton was then dropped for the next two games.

Leah Poulton was recalled for the penultimate round-robin match against England but did not bat in a six-wicket win, and then made 27 as Australia defeated India by four wickets in the last match.

Australia won by six wickets with the dropped Leah Poulton watching from the sidelines.

However, Leah Poulton was then bowled for a golden duck from the first ball of the innings from Lauren Ebsary as New South Wales lost the match by 37 runs.

Leah Poulton ended the season with four wickets at 8.75 at an economy rate of 3.75.

Leah Poulton 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.

Leah Poulton 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.

Leah Poulton top-scored in both T20 matches for the Sapphires, making 32 and 47.

Leah Poulton scored 79 runs at 26.33 but scored at the slow strike rate of 47.87.

Leah Poulton took her maiden international wicket in the fourth match at Manuka Oval in Canberra, trapping Indian wicket-keeper Anagha Deshpande lbw.

Leah Poulton posted two half-centuries in the first four matches, resulting in eight-wicket wins over Queensland and Western Australia respectively.

Leah Poulton then made fifties in each of the last three round-robin matches.

New South Wales thus earned the right to host the final against the same team, and Leah Poulton made 43 as they chased down 118 and won the title by six wickets.

Leah Poulton played in two Twenty20 interstate matches, scoring 23 and 35.

Australia toured New Zealand before the World Cup, and Leah Poulton was dropped into the middle-order.

Leah Poulton made four in the first two matches, both of which the hosts won.

Leah Poulton struggled in these matches, taking 15 and 18 balls to score the four runs in either ODI, was omitted for the third match.

Leah Poulton then returned to her customary opening position and scored 81 from 97 balls, including 11 fours, in the fourth match, helping to set up an Australia victory by 44 runs.

In two warm-up matches ahead of the World Cup in Australia, Leah Poulton made 24 and 49 against England and Sri Lanka.

Leah Poulton was recalled for the two remaining group matches against South Africa and the West Indies.

Leah Poulton was then dropped for Australia's first match of the next phase against India, which they lost.

Leah Poulton was recalled for the next match and scored 47 against Pakistan, putting on 100 for the first wicket with Shelley Nitschke before the latter was bowled.

Leah Poulton was then bowled herself, the third time in as many ODIs that she had been dismissed in such a manner.

Leah Poulton then hit 38 from 47 balls, including a six, in the final Super Six match against England.

Leah Poulton was selected for the 2009 World Twenty20 in England and Australia hosted New Zealand for three T20 matches in tropical Brisbane during the southern hemisphere winter before the teams departed for the tournament.

Leah Poulton made only two and eight in Australia's first two pool matches against New Zealand and the West Indies; Australia lost the first by nine wickets and won the second by eight wickets.

Leah Poulton trapped Shandre Fritz for 39 with the first ball of the next over, and the South Africans lost momentum, scoring only 41 runs for the loss of seven wickets in the next ten overs.

Leah Poulton scored 33 and took two catches as Australia upset England in the only T20 by 34 runs.

Leah Poulton played in all of the five ODIs, but was not successful, being dismissed for single-digit scores every time and ending with 26 runs at 5.20.

Leah Poulton struggled to make an effective start in the matches, with a strike rate of 35.00 or less in each of her five innings and 29.54 overall.

Leah Poulton made her Test debut against England in a one-off match at New Road in Worcester.

Australia batted first and Leah Poulton came in at No 6.

Leah Poulton lasted only 14 balls before being bowled by paceman Katherine Brunt for 1.

Leah Poulton took her first catch in Tests, removing Claire Taylor from the bowling of Lauren Ebsary.

Australia took a 41-run lead and Leah Poulton then scored 23 from 41 balls before being run out as the match ended in a draw.

Leah Poulton is the 158th woman to play Test cricket for Australia.

Leah Poulton reached double figures in nine of 11 innings, but was unable to convert the starts into large scores.

Leah Poulton made 31, her second best effort of the competition, in the final, as New South Wales defeated Victoria by 59 runs to take their fifth WNCL title in a row.

Leah Poulton had more success in the new T20 domestic competition, scoring 201 runs at 28.71.

Leah Poulton top-scored with 58 in a seven-run defeat at the hands of Victoria and then made 38 in a nine-wicket win over South Australia.

Leah Poulton was omitted from the first two ODIs at the Adelaide Oval before being recalled for the last three matches held at the Junction Oval in Melbourne; Rachael Haynes was moved from an opening position into the middle-order to make way for Poulton.

Leah Poulton had little success in the T20s in Australia, scoring 0,24 and 1 as the tourists bounced back to claim a whitewash.

Leah Poulton 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.

Leah Poulton played in all three ODIs in New Zealand, scoring 7,47 and 31 as the Australians again swept the 50-over matches.

Leah Poulton was selected for the 2010 World Twenty20 in the West Indies and played in every match.

Leah Poulton scored a single off the first ball she faced, before being caught by Colvin on the fourth ball.

Leah Poulton counter-attacked with Nitschke, scoring 39 runs herself from only 25 balls, including two sixes.

Leah Poulton hit 30 from 26 balls to seal an Australian victory with seven wickets and seven balls to spare.

Leah Poulton brought up the winning runs with a lofted drive that bounced once before going for four runs.

Leah Poulton was Australian's highest run-scorer for the tournament and the third among all players.

Leah Poulton 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.

Leah Poulton 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.

Leah Poulton oversaw for introduction of the Under-19 and A team programmes, and the first overseas tour of both the teams.

In March 2020, Leah Poulton was named as the head coach of Melbourne Stars in Women's Big Bash League.

Leah Poulton gave birth to their first child, Hugo Leah Poulton-Haynes, in October 2021.