Jess Duffin

Jessica Evelyn Duffin (born 27 June 1989) is an Australian sportswoman.

In cricket, she has made 117 international appearances and won four world championships as a member of the Australian women's team.

During the 2006–07 Australian summer, Duffin was selected for the national youth team to play against New Zealand A, where she had more success as a leg spinner than as a batter.

In the final match of the series, she took 6/28 in a 22-run defeat.

At the start of the 2008–09 season, Duffin played for an under-21 Australian team in a series against India.

She made 60 of the team's 149 all out total in the second-last match, then delivered an unbeaten 79 in the team's winning score of 5/156.

On 1 February 2009, Duffin made her international cricket debut, playing an ODI against New Zealand at Cobham Oval.

Coming in at seven in the batting order, she made 16 from 35 balls in a two-wicket loss.

On 15 February, Duffin made her T20 International debut at the Sydney Cricket Ground, also against New Zealand.

She was not required to bat or bowl in a rain-shortened match that Australia won by nine wickets.

Duffin was selected in Australia's squad for the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup on home soil.

She played six of a possible seven matches and scored 81 runs at an average of 16.20, with the hosts finishing in fourth place.

Duffin was then selected for the 2009 World Twenty20 in England.

She only played one game and Australia were eliminated in the semi-finals.

In the middle of the 2009–10 season, Duffin played for the Australian Under-21s against the New Zealand Emerging XI.

She compiled 128 runs at 42.66 in five matches, with a best score of 66 in the fourth fixture.

After returning to the senior Australian team toward the end of the season, Duffin was selected as a wicket-keeper for three ODI matches in New Zealand.

She top-scored with 68 off 81 balls in the first match of the series, helping the tourists to recover from a middle-order collapse and scrape home with a two-wicket win on the final ball.

She was not required to bat in the last two matches and finished the series with four dismissals behind the stumps.

This experiment was only repeated once more, with Duffin going on to settle as a top-order batter for the team.

Duffin was selected for the 2010 World Twenty20 in the West Indies, playing every game of Australia's unbeaten run.

In the first match against England, both teams finished their respective innings with a score of 104.

The deadlock could not be broken in the resulting super over, with the match having to be decided by a count back on the number of sixes scored.

The only six of the game had been hit by Duffin which ultimately secured victory for Australia.

In a low-scoring final against New Zealand, Duffin put on a 30-run partnership with Leah Poulton to help Australia win by three runs and claim their maiden World Twenty20 championship.

On 22 January 2011, Duffin made her Test cricket debut at Bankstown Oval against England.

She scored 30 runs from 71 balls in the second innings of the match and Australia went on to win by seven wickets.

A right-handed batter with a reputation as a big game performer, Duffin was named Player of the Final in both the 2012 ICC Women's World Twenty20 and 2013 Women's Cricket World Cup tournaments.

In an ODI against India on 16 March 2012 at Wankhede Stadium, Duffin recorded her highest score at international level, making 90 not out off 87 balls which steered Australia to a five-wicket win.

At the 2012 World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, Duffin was the tournament's second-highest run-scorer.

In a group stage encounter with Pakistan, she was named Player of the Match for her innings of 42 off 28 in a 35-run win (via the Duckworth–Lewis method).

She also won the 2013 Belinda Clark Award for being adjudged Australia's best international women's cricketer over the previous year.

Her domestic career has included playing for Victoria in the Women's National Cricket League and captaining the Melbourne Renegades in the Women's Big Bash League.

In addition to cricket, Duffin has played Australian rules football for Collingwood, North Melbourne, and Hawthorn in the AFL Women's competition.

She has also received recognition for her outstanding performance at state league level, winning the 2018 Lambert–Pearce Medal while playing as a midfielder for Williamstown in the VFL Women's competition.

Born in the Melbourne suburb of Williamstown, Duffin has described her childhood as "really sporty" and that "growing up with an older brother and my Dad meant I was in the backyard a lot... pretty much playing AFL and cricket from the age of four".

Duffin participated in Auskick and then played football with Werribee until the age of twelve, after which girls were not permitted to compete.

The lack of female pathways in football at the time led Duffin to undertake the more accessible sport of cricket.

After receiving encouragement by a school teacher, she attended an under-12 cricket training camp that resulted in selection for Victoria at junior level.

She led the league for marks across the first three seasons and earned selection in the 2019 All-Australian team as a half-back flanker.