"It was devastating": Rowlings stunned by early Regional Bash exit

The reigning champions of the Women's Regional Bash had just been beaten for the first time in nearly two years.

Yet it was not the result that had so upset the players, but the manner in which it was incurred. Chasing the target of 94 that had been set by the Illawarra Flames, the Aces had collapsed to 36 all out.

"It was devastating to be knocked out of the competition in such a dramatic and surprising way," ACT captain and Goulburn native, Kelly Rowlings, told the Post in an email.

"We were all very disappointed in ourselves and it was one of those games where everyone felt like we'd let each other, our coaches, and the ACT region down.

"We severely underperformed but we knew that there was nothing really we could do about it from there except learn from it and rebuild even stronger for next year."

The sting of defeat was made more acute by the Aces' confidence leading in to the competition.

They had made the grand final for two consecutive years, losing in 2019/20 to the Coffs Coast Chargers before claiming a narrow six wicket win in the 2020/21 final against the same opponents.

This year, Rowlings believed the side was even better positioned on the eve of the tournament.

"Going in to this year's competition we were feeling excited and ready to compete," she said.

"We had arguably a stronger side this year and coming off the back of a successful 2020/21 season we were confident in our ability to showcase our skills and play some quality cricket. We were keen to defend our hard-earned title."

That confidence was bolstered after the ACT's win in the opening game against the Western Outlaws earlier that same day.

Having won the toss and elected to bowl first, the Aces restricted the Outlaws to 6-92 from 20 overs.

In response, the home side charged to the victory with nine wickets remaining, thanks in large to an innings of 56 not out from NSW representative and WBBL player, Claire Koski.

"I've played a lot of cricket with Koski and I've almost grown accustomed to seeing her score a lot of runs consistently and with considerable power," Rowlings said. "She's a strong girl and it was great to see her showing that off and putting on a clinic in the first game."

That form, however, did not carry into the second game, where Rowlings believes the Aces' primary foible was poor shot selection.

After winning her second consecutive toss, Rowlings once again decided to bowl first. This time around, the ACT bowlers kept Illawarra to 5-93, though the captain believes that total should have been smaller.

Despite a required run rate of less than five per over, the Aces consistently threw their wickets away in the second innings. Once again, Koski was the highest scorer, with 10, and was the only batter to reach double figures.

"The second game certainly was a shock loss," Rowlings said.

"We bowled well, probably gave them more runs than they deserved, but then with the bat we just handed them our wickets cheaply off the back of poor decision-making."

Due to the scale of their defeat in the second game, the Aces finished in third on the ladder and were subsequently eliminated from the Regional Bash, as only the top two teams from each pool progress to the finals.

Having missed out on what would have been their third finals berth in a row, Rowlings said the team will focus on what lessons they can take away from this year's tournament in the future.

"We discussed a few learnings as a team in our post-game debrief but I think the main theme was to learn and adapt on the go so that we can adjust to the conditions and situation at hand," she said.

"We showed inflexibility and made a lot of mistakes so there were plenty of learning opportunities in the game for us."

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