Globetrotting Huntly cricketer and Scotland international Ailsa Lister describes her experience of smashing runs and stumping rivals across three continents after World Cup and club action in United Arab Emirates, Australia and South Africa
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A globetrotting winter has helped Huntly teenager Ailsa Lister establish herself in the women’s international cricket scene.
The 18-year-old product of Huntly Cricket Club represented Scotland in qualifiers for the Women’s T20 World Cup in United Arab Emirates in September, before heading to Australia to play club cricket over Christmas.
That stint Down Under was perfect preparation for Lister to head to South Africa where she was part of the first-ever Scotland women’s team to play in a cricket World Cup at under-19 level.
After being away from Scotland for several months, she is back home in Huntly and aiming to become one of the first Scottish female players to receive a full-time contract from Cricket Scotland this year.
“All three experiences have given me so much more experience in the sport, although I am still learning all the time,” she said.
Lister cemented her place in the Scotland Wildcats senior women’s team by playing in all their T20 World Cup qualifiers in Abu Dhabi last year, and producing a stunning performance with the bat.
Appearing as an opening batter she scored double figures in all five matches including a memorable 60 off 44 balls to help Scotland defeat the host nation in their penultimate match.
Scotland beat USA before losing to Bangladesh and Ireland, failing to qualify for the finals.
In placement matches that followed, Lister's swashbuckling 60-run hit helped Scotland reach 172 for 4 in their 20 overs, before they bowled UAE out for 87 to pick up their first win.
"It was my first major tournament with the women and perhaps my naivety helped me to a certain extent," she said.
"I didn't know much about the teams we were playing against and I think that helped me go out with no fear and be able to play the way that I want to play.
"I kept getting good starts and I was hitting the ball well and I managed to push on against UAE and get a decent enough score - and winning the game was really good.
"I have never played in conditions like that. That game it was 45 degrees at three in the afternoon, and by the end of it I was goosed!
"It did my confidence a whole lot of good to cement my place in the team."
When it was time for the Scotland squad to fly home, Lister went a different direction after planning an adventure in Australia.
She was able to stay with family in Perth and play for the A Grade Midland-Guildford club side over the Aussie summer season.
“I popped along to the club training on the Wednesday and they asked me to play on the Sunday and I couldn’t say no.
" I was straight in, I didn’t have my week’s rest as planned after my time in Abu Dhabi but I was just happy to get started with the girls.
“I was there over Christmas and it was a great experience,” she said.
“It was my first time away travelling on my own. I played for Midland-Guildford as wicket keeper and batting anywhere between 6 and 1. We played mostly T20s but also 50 over games which were good as you were spending more time in the middle.
“I did manage to score a century batting at number six and had a 170-run partnership.”
From there it was straight to South Africa for the under-19 T20 World Cup, where Lister was vice-captain of a Scotland team in the same group as United Arab Emirates, the host country and eventual champions India.
It was a learning experience for the young Scots as they were defeated in all three group games, before defeating United States in the fourth-place play-off in Benoni.
"The first game against UAE was the one we had targeted and we didn’t manage to get over the line with that," Lister said.
"We then played South Africa and India. The first innings when we were bowling against South Africa was probably the most fun I have had on a cricket pitch.
"We performed really well to restrict them to 110 and unfortunately it fell apart with the batting.
"India were tough opponents and ended up winning the tournament. We bowled well again but couldn’t quite chase it down.
"For me it was quite a frustrating tournament especially with my batting, I was hitting well but I ended up finding ways of getting out.
"Overall the experience for all of us was so good. It was the first Scotland woman’s team to get to a world cup at any age group or level, so that was a huge honour and a privilege.
"We managed to beat USA in our fourth place play-off which was a nail-biter that we managed to win in the final over.
"It was good fun to get over the line and finally sing the winners’ song that we had created!"
Lister hopes to return to Australia for more cricket, possibly later this year.
Before then Cricket Scotland have announced that they are going to be awarding professional contracts to female players.
"It’s part-time contracts with different bands so I am hoping I might get one of these," she said.
"It’s a huge step forward in women’s cricket in Scotland and it would be for me too."
