Sophie Day targets all-phase bowling role after Darwin winter
The Victoria spinner spent three months playing with the men at Darwin Cricket Club and hopes to add speed variations to her Big Bash game.
Sophie Day took 2-17 for the Stars against the Perth Scorchers on Monday night, building on a winter spent playing cricket in Darwin, Cricket Australia said.
The Victoria and Stars left-arm spinner, 28, spent about three months in the Northern Territory capital while most of her teammates trained in Melbourne's cold.
Day wanted to avoid the six-month gap between domestic seasons and found a place to play with the men at Darwin Cricket Club.
She played 12 weeks of two-day, one-day and Twenty20 cricket, which she said gave her more match time than her usual indoor training at Junction Oval.
"I just wanted to find more games," Day told cricket.com.au ahead of the Big Bash season.
She also played for Sandgate-Redcliffe in Queensland's T20 Max during the break.
Day had been the Stars' leading wicket-taker over the past three seasons and entered the Weber WBBL|12 season with that record.
The Stars lost their first two games of the tournament without a wicket for Day, before she bounced back against the Scorchers and dismissed opener Katie Mack.
Day said the time in Darwin let her test speed variations and practise bowling in the Powerplay and Surges.
"I'd like to be an option with that," she said, adding that becoming an all-phase bowler would be a good outcome.
Day is also preparing an art exhibition for the end of the season, drawing on her Fine Arts studies at the Victoria College of Arts.
She has previously staged exhibitions in Melbourne, including a series of cricket-inspired works shown at Junction Oval.
"It's a little bit of a documentation of the season," Day said, adding that the project keeps her accountable for time away from cricket.
The Women's Big Bash League is the premier women's Twenty20 competition in Australia, run by Cricket Australia.