Cricket
28 January, 2025
Mitchell lives dream representing Victoria
Stawell's Ayva Mitchell lived one of her dreams. From January 6 to 13, she represented Victoria Country in the Cricket Australia Under-16 Female National Championships, held in Ballarat.
Mitchell, who has been playing cricket since her milo cricket days, has been playing in the Women's Premier League for Geelong for the last two years and got her opportunity to represent Victoria following successful trials last year.
Mitchell explained the process.
"Around July, I got picked as one of the 30 players in the emerging players program for Cricket Victoria," Mitchell said.
"We trained in Melbourne every fortnight, and in early September, my mum, Amber, got E-mailed that I was chosen for the trial squad for Victoria Country with 15 other girls.
"In the September school holidays, we played a trial game in Hamilton against Victoria Metro and South Australia, and a month later, the final team was announced, and then we had a few training sessions before Christmas.
"I was like, 'Wow, I actually get to do this'. I have been dreaming of it my whole life, and representing my state would be so awesome. It's phenomenal."
Victoria Country finished second on the ladder with five wins, equal to Queensland, which finished top. Victoria Country played against Queensland, Victoria Metro, Northern Territory, Tasmania, South Australia, and New South Wales Metro.
In the first final, they lost to Western Australia by 49 runs, and in the battle for third place, they lost to Victoria Metro by 44 runs to finish fourth in a T20 match.
Mitchell, a pace bowler, opened the bowling in every game, took three wickets during the competition, and said it was cool to get that opportunity.
"It was pretty cool opening the bowling as there was a lot of different players and styles I had to bowl to," Mitchell said.
"I had to figure out how to adapt to that and change my bowling to get around it and stop them from scoring runs.
"I was able to change my bowling up and bowl slower balls, and it was a fun experience."
While Mitchell has high ambitions, she said she is just happy to be given the chance to play for her state.
"The ambition to take my cricket further is there, but if I don't get there, that's okay. I can always say I played for my state, and that's pretty big," Mitchell said.
"I'm pretty happy just to get there because the year before, there were 30 other girls better than me, and I absolutely did not think I would get in, and it was pretty cool and a great experience."
In the Women's Victorian Premier Cricket League, Mitchell plays for Geelong in the premier seconds, has taken 10 wickets at an average of 25.6, and is third on the leading wicket table.
Mitchell's best figures this season was 3/14 off five overs with one maiden, which she achieved against Melbourne.
They are currently sitting on top of the ladder and Mitchell usually comes in at first drop in bowling.
"It's awesome playing against the best cricketers in the state, and it's been good being able to bowl to them," Mitchell said.
"There are some strong and some weaker teams, and it's been fairly even across the board."