By Jonty Ralphsmith
Parkfield’s ladies are two from two and the Bears haven’t even had meaningful contribution from their international import in a potent start to the season.
Harjivan Bhullar has played 22 twenty-20 internationals as a middle order batter for Austria – a developing cricketing nation – and she is in Melbourne studying international law at Monash on exchange, so will be available to Parkfield until the end of January
She is an aggressive player that likes to feel bat on ball and advance the game forward which has seen her installed as opener so far.
While the 22-year-old has so far scored only 11 and 5, people around the club have seen promising signs that she can give her side momentum within games at different points of the season.
“If you saw her down on the bowling machine, you’d be really bullish,” president David Swierzbiolek said.
“She was facing balls over 100 kilometres an hour and it looked (like she was having) no problems.
“It was just when the ball started to swing around at that higher pace that she obviously has got a few deficiencies there.
“She speaks fluent English, German and Punjabi – because her parents are Indian – so she has fitted in really well around the group.
“We want to get her as immersed into cricket as possible so she can take it back to Austria and add it to their training over there – any help developing that nation is a bonus.”
There are also plans to give her exposure in the men’s competition to expedite her development.
As much as possible, Parkfield will accommodate Bhullar’s schedule to play shorter formats – either in men’s or women’s – given Austria play only twenty-20s.
Parkfield’s two wins have come against Essendon and Frankston, bowling first on each occasion and keeping its opponents to 70 and 74 respectively.
The side is led by Australian indoor cricketer Brodie Whitmore, who has moved down to number three thanks to the inclusion of Bhullar.
Whitmore has been excellent in the first two games, with scores of 17 not out and 32 not out including the match-winning six last week.
That’s the quality coach Daniel Ferguson and co. expect Bhullar to bring in the coming weeks.
“Even when she made that 11 you could tell she understood cricket because she knew that Hasini (Perera-Jayatunga) at the other end was going (well) so let her do her thing,” Swierzbiolek said.
“There will be a game soon enough where she goes ‘it’s on me today’. That’s where we’ll see the best of her.”
