Leah Poulton

Leah Poulton

Personal information
Full name	Leah Joy Poulton
Born	(1984-02-27) 27 February 1984 (age 40) Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
Nickname	Poultsy, Turtle[1]
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm leg break
Role	Batter
Relations	Rachael Haynes (wife)
International information
National side	Australia (2006–2012)
Test debut (cap 158)	10 July 2009 v England
Last Test	22 January 2011 v England
ODI debut (cap 107)	20 October 2006 v New Zealand
Last ODI	19 December 2012 v New Zealand
T20I debut (cap 15)	18 October 2006 v New Zealand
Last T20I	23 March 2012 v India
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2002/03–2014/15	New South Wales
2008	Nottinghamshire
Career statistics
Competition WTest WODI WT20I WLA Matches 2 48 40 171 Runs scored 45 1,033 784 4,376 Batting average 15.00 25.19 20.63 29.17 100s/50s 0/0 2/4 0/0 3/28 Top score 23 104* 61 109 Balls bowled 24 144 18 660 Wickets 0 3 2 11 Bowling average – 32.66 10.00 40.45 5 wickets in innings 0 0 0 0 10 wickets in match 0 0 0 0 Best bowling 0/15 2/9 2/20 3/10 Catches/stumpings 1/– 12/– 7/– 35/–
Source: CricketArchive, 22 October 2021

Leah Joy Poulton (born 27 February 1984^[2]) 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 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. 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.^[2]

Poulton announced her ODI retirement in December 2012,^[3] and announced retirement from all forms from the game in March 2015.^[4] 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.^[5]