A field day

TAYLA VLAEMINCK IS one of Australia’s most talented young cricketers, despite only taking up the sport when she was 14. As a child she was a keen soccer player, but experience with the bat and ball only extended as far as playing with her brother in the family backyard. Now one of the best pace bowlers in Australia’s women’s T20 team, Vlaeminck can reach speeds around 120 kilometres per hour. “My dad tried to coach me, but I was pretty erratic,” she says of her humble suburban start. “I definitely didn’t have much of a base to go on.”

While her talent was raw, what Vlaeminck did have was a role model. Just a few years earlier, schoolgirl Ellyse Perry dominated