Leah Poulton

Leah Joy Poulton (born 27 February 1984 ) is an Australian former cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia.

She played as a specialist batter who usually opened the batting.

Poulton came to prominence in youth cricket by captaining New South Wales to the Under-17 national championships in 2000.

In March 2000, soon after turning 16, she played for New South Wales in the national Under-17 championships.

She scored 141 runs at a batting average of 23.50 and took two wickets at a bowling average of 15.50 as New South Wales defeated Victoria Blue to win the competition.

In 2002–03, she made her senior debut for New South Wales in the Women's National Cricket League (WNCL).

She found runs hard to come by in her first three seasons and was in and out of the team frequently, aggregating only 24 runs in her second and third seasons combined.

In January 2002, she was selected for the state Under-19 team and scored 112 in the first match, against the Australian Capital Territory.

She also made two ducks and ended the tournament with 188 runs at 31.33; New South Wales won all of their six matches.

At the start of the 2002–03 season, Poulton made her senior debut for New South Wales in the Women's National Cricket League in a double-header against South Australia.

In her first match, she scored 12 in five-wicket victory.

Playing in ten matches, she made many starts, reaching double figures in all but one of her nine innings, but managed only a best score of 36 run out, against Western Australia.

She ended the WNCL season with 159 runs at 19.87 as New South Wales came second, ending a run of six consecutive titles.

Victoria qualified first and thus hosted the finals, defeating New South Wales 2–0 in a best-of-three series.

Poulton made only 1 and 11 in the deciding matches, which were lost by 3 wickets and 40 runs respectively.

During the season, Poulton also played in the Under-19 interstate tournament during the break in the WNCL, captaining her state.

In five innings, she made three half-centuries, with a best of 73 against Queensland in the final, which New South Wales won by five wickets.

She was unbeaten in the other two fifties after opening the batting; New South Wales completed ten-wicket wins in both instances.

Poulton ended the competition with 191 runs at 63.66.

She was rewarded with selection in and captaincy of the national Under-19 team during the season and played in two matches against England Under-19s, scoring 13 and 35 as Australia won both matches.

At the end of the season, she was selected to lead an Australian Under-23 team to play against the senior England team.

Poulton made 15 in her only innings.

Poulton had an interrupted season in 2003–04.

After playing in the first two matches against Western Australia, scoring only 3 not out and 1 as New South Wales took both matches, she was absent until the finals series.

Victoria had qualified first and hosted the three-match series.

Poulton was omitted for the first match, which was won by the home team, before being recalled for the second match.

Despite this, she regularly captained Australia's Under-19 and Under-23 teams during this time, leading the latter on a successful tour of Sri Lanka in 2004.

In 2005–06, she made a substantial impact on the WNCL for the first time, scoring 325 runs, more than twice her previous best season's total, playing in the first of five consecutive WNCL triumphs for New South Wales.

Poulton was rewarded with international selection in the Rose Bowl series against New Zealand at the start of the 2006–07 season and scored her maiden century, 101, in the third match.

However, after a poor tour of India at the end of the season, she was dropped from the Australian team in mid-2007 and continued to be overlooked after a poor WNCL season in 2007–08.

During the 2008 Australian winter, she travelled to play for Nottinghamshire in England, and earned herself a recall to the Australian team at the start of the 2008–09 southern hemisphere season.

After scoring 376 runs at a batting average of 41.77 in the 2008–09 WNCL, Poulton retained her position in the national team for the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup and the 2009 World Twenty20.

She was a regular member of the playing team in both tournaments, participating all the matches in the latter.

In 2009, Poulton made her Test debut against England and in 2009–10, she hit her second One Day International (ODI) century, 104 not out against New Zealand.

Poulton announced her ODI retirement in December 2012, and announced retirement from all forms from the game in March 2015.

While announcing her ODI retirement, she said that it was the Twenty20 format that strengthened her love for cricket, and if not for T20s, she would have retired sooner.

Poulton is from Elermore Vale in the New South Wales coastal city of Newcastle, and played for the Wallsend Cricket Club in the city.

She grew up in Newcastle, before moving to Sydney.

She attended Lambton High School.

Outside of cricket, she works as a physical education teacher.