Kristen Beams

Kristen Maree Beams (born 6 November 1984) is an Australian former cricket player.^[2] Beams played one Test, thirty One Day Internationals and eighteen Twenty20 Internationals for the Australia national women's cricket team between 2014 and 2017.^[3]

Kristen Beams

Personal information
Full name	Kristen Maree Beams
Born	(1984-11-06) 6 November 1984 (age 40) Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Legbreak googly
Role	Bowler
International information
National side	Australia (2014–2017)
Only Test (cap 168)	11 August 2015 v England
ODI debut (cap 128)	26 August 2014 v Pakistan
Last ODI	26 October 2017 v England
T20I debut (cap 39)	3 September 2014 v Pakistan
Last T20I	22 February 2017 v New Zealand
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2007/08–2019/20	Victoria
2013	Essex
2015/16–2019/20	Melbourne Stars
2017	Loughborough Lightning
Career statistics
Competition WTest WODI WT20I WBBL[1] Matches 1 30 18 45 Runs scored 26 34 6 14 Batting average – 6.80 6.00 7.00 100s/50s 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 Top score 26* 11* 4* 14 Balls bowled 66 1,490 378 891 Wickets 0 42 20 37 Bowling average – 22.45 16.60 24.08 5 wickets in innings 0 0 0 0 10 wickets in match 0 – – – Best bowling – 4/15 3/11 4/11 Catches/stumpings 0/– 10/– 4/– 13/–
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 25 December 2022

Cricket career

Beams began her domestic cricket career playing for Victoria in the Women's National Cricket League (WNCL). In the 2013–14 WNCL season, she took 14 wickets at an average of 13.21 to lead the wicket-takers for the competition. During the season she also played tour matches against the visiting English team.^[4] In July 2014, she was added into the Australian national team's squad for the first time, ahead of a series against Pakistan.^[4] During the series, she made both her One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) debuts, on 26 August and 3 September respectively.^[5][6] She starred in the following series against the West Indies when, in just her third T20I, she took three wickets and had the best bowling figures for the Australian team.^[7]

In June 2015, she was named as one of Australia's touring party for the 2015 Women's Ashes in England, putting her in line for a Test cricket debut.^[8][9] She played her first and only Test match against England at St Lawrence Ground, starting on 11 August 2015. She scored 26 runs without being dismissed in her sole batting innings, but only bowled 11 overs for the match and did not take any wickets.^[10]

Beams had a strong year in 2016, and was Australia's leading wicket-taker in ODIs for the year up to November 2016. In Australia's tour of Sri Lanka, she took 13 wickets at a "stunning" average of 5.92, and took her career best figures in both ODIs (4/15) and T20Is (3/11).^[11] In an ODI against South Africa in November 2016, Beams bowled four overs before breaking her finger. She left the field for medical treatment, but with her finger still broken she returned to the field and bowled two more overs, taking the wicket of Lizelle Lee. After the match she was ruled out of the rest of the series due to the injury.^[11]

Beams continued to play for Australia through 2017. She was Australia's leading wicket taker in the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup in England, but in the Australian summer she only played one match in the ODI portion of the 2017–18 Ashes series. She was dropped from the team altogether for the sole Test match of the series when Australia opted to go with only one spin bowler (Amanda-Jade Wellington).^[12]

In March 2018, following the conclusion of the 2017–18 Women's National Cricket League season, Cricket Victoria named her the player of the season, awarding her the Sharon Tredrea Award,^[13] but in April 2018 the national team chose not to renew her contract,^[14] and she never returned to the national team.^[15] On 1 December 2019, she announced her retirement from cricket.^[15][16]

References

1. "Kristen Beams". CricketArchive. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
2. "Kristen Beams – Australia". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN Inc. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
3. "Kristen Beams – Australia". CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
4. "Australia call on uncapped Beams". ESPNcricinfo. 17 July 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
5. "3rd ODI, Brisbane, August 26, 2014, ICC Women's Championship". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
6. "3rd T20I, Gold Coast, September 03, 2014, Pakistan Women tour of Australia". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
7. "Batsmen, Beams star in big Australia win". ESPNcricinfo. 5 November 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
8. "Women's Ashes: Australia include three potential Test debututants". BBC. 1 June 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
9. "Australia name women's Ashes squad". ESPNcricinfo. 1 June 2015. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
10. "Only Test, Canterbury, August 11 - 14, 2015, Australia Women tour of England and Ireland". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
11. "Beams out of ODI series with finger fracture". ESPNcricinfo. 26 November 2016. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
12. "Australia omit Beams, Vakarewa for day-night Women's Ashes Test". ESPNcricinfo. 7 November 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
13. "Tremain crowned Victoria's best". Sydney Morning Herald. 29 March 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
14. "Molineux, Kimmince among new Australia contracts; Beams, Cheatle miss out". ESPNcricinfo. 5 April 2018. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
15. "Rene Farrell, Kristen Beams join Alex Blackwell in announcing WBBL retirements". ESPNcricinfo. 2 December 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
16. "Kristen Beams calls stumps on playing career". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 1 December 2019.

External links

• Kristen Beams at ESPNcricinfo