Sarah Andrews (cricketer)

Sarah Andrews (cricketer)

Source: CricketArchive, 5 May 2010

Sarah Joy Andrews (born 16 December 1981) is a retired female cricketer who played for Australia from 2006 to early 2010. She was a right-arm fast bowler and a right-handed lower-order batsman.

After playing in the Second XI in 2000–01, Andrews made her debut for New South Wales in the 2001–02 Women's National Cricket League (WNCL). In her debut season, she was dropped multiple times and not given much of a workload with the ball. She took five wickets and was omitted for the first half of the next season before ending with six wickets despite never bowling a full quota of overs. At the end of the summer, she was selected for the Australian Under-23 team.

In 2003–04, Andrews played a full season for the first time and took seven wickets. In the second final against Victoria, she bowled a full quota of overs for the first time, in her 21st match. On an Under-23 tour of Sri Lanka, she made her first-class debut against the hosts' senior team, taking four wickets. Andrews had a poor 2004–05 WNCL, taking only five wickets, and the started the following season poorly, taking only three wickets in the first six matches. She took career-best figures of 5/16 and followed it with 3/45 the next day, both against Victoria. She then took 3/32 in the first final against Queensland and ended with five for the finals series as New South Wales won the first of five consecutive titles.

Andrews ended with 16 wickets for the tournament and was rewarded with selection for the national team, making her Test and One Day International (ODI) debut at the end of the season against India. She took 2/48 on her Test debut and 3/21 in her first ODI. After taking ten wickets in her first six ODIs, Andrews took 15 wickets in New South Wales' 2006–07 WNCL win. She struggled during a quadrangular series on the spin-friendly pitches of India and was used only sporadically, taking three wickets in four matches, but returned to form in the home Rose Bowl series against New Zealand, taking nine wickets in five matches. In 2007–08, Andrews was in and out of the Australian team and played in six ODIs, taking seven wickets. She was then dropped for the home series against India at the start of the 2008–09 season and was responded by taking 13 wickets in the WNCL to earn a recall. Andrews made sporadic appearances in the Rose Bowl series ahead of the 2009 World Cup, in which she played in four of Australia's seven matches, taking five wickets as Australia came fourth. She was selected for the 2009 World Twenty20 in England, and played in all of Australia's four matches, taking two wickets. In the subsequent bilateral series hosted by England, Andrews took her career best figures of 4/50 and ended with eight ODI wickets.

Andrews took 14 wickets in the 2009–10 WNCL as New South Wales won again, and in the following Rose Bowl series, she bowed out of competitive cricket with ten wickets in seven ODIs as Australia swept the series.