By Tyler Lewis
There was no nervous 90s for Tiana Atkinson as she approached her maiden Victorian Premier Cricket century in last weekend’s opening round.
Atkinson faced just two deliveries on 99 – it was all she needed –a textbook forward defence and then a swash-buckling slog-sweep to the Langhorne Street boundary at Shepley Oval to bring up that desired triple-figure figure.
While Atkinson said she didn’t feel the nerves in the 90s due to the amount of time her bowlers had given her to reel in the total, the right-hander did joke that an extra in the 37th over made bringing up the milestone a little less daunting.
“It helps when you get a free hit (on 99), I don’t know if you can be set up any better,” Atkinson joked.
“The girls set it up so well in the first innings, so we had time.
“At that point I thought ‘I am just going to respect the good ball and –because they brought all the fielders up on that side – if they bowl anything short, I am just going to go for it’, it was a low full-toss in the end”.
While it was Atkinson’s first century at Premier Cricket level, it was an innings that was no shock to Premier Cricket onlookers, coming from a player who has been one of the competition’s – and state’s – more promising top order batters for the best part of two seasons.
After crunching a competition leading 499 runs at 33.27 last summer, Atkinson was signed onto the Victorian books and hasn’t looked back since, preparing herself for yet another mammoth season at the crease.
In a scary prospect for bowlers across the competition, Atkinson believes she is walking out to the middle full of confidence.
“I felt really confident,” she said of her game before Sunday’s match.
“I have done a lot of work this off-season on my game and the tactical aspect of building those innings.
“I am just really glad that it paid off and I got that opportunity.”
Despite smashing 112 from 128 balls with 16 fours and one six; Atkinson again modestly gave credit to the bowlers in the first innings that set the standard of what the side would achieve on Sunday a week ago.
“I think from the girls setting the standard as well in the first innings, we knew it was a pace on, spinning wicket,” she said.
“I used the knowledge from the first innings to how I was going to approach my batting.
“I just wanted to do my job and the girls set me up beautifully for that,” Atkinson said.
While a very laconic and down-to-earth cricketer, Atkinson still has her dream of playing higher honours cricket in the back of her mind, making sure to pick the brain of those around her that have reached what she aspires to accomplish.
“It is something I have wanted to do since I first ever started playing cricket,” she said.
“When I first started training with Victoria – it has been an unbelievable experience – being around those players has really motivated me to get to that level and put myself out there to become one of them.
“I would probably say all the Dandenong girls (as influences), Kim Garth, Nicole Faltum, Sophie Molineux, Lucy Cripps – all those girls – they’re fantastic to be around.
“They’re fantastic people and all so talented, we (Dandenong) had such a good season last season, (I am) just going off their experiences and knowledge, it’s incredible.
“There are a lot of us there,” Atkinson joked of Dandenong girls filling six of the 20 list spots for Victoria.
After the booming stroke to bring up her century, Atkinson didn’t hang around, hitting single then back-to-back boundaries to wrap the game up.
