To say Kristen Beams dominated the bowling statistics in Australia’s 4-0 ODI series win in Sri Lanka would underestimate the impact of the Launceston cricketer.
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The 31-year-old leg-spinner took 4-26 in the 137-run fourth victory in Colombo to cement her position atop the series statistics.
Beams took 13 wickets over the four matches which, with the exception of teammate Holly Ferling, was double any other bowler.
But equally impressive was the former Exeter student’s economy rate of 2.09 and average of a miserly 5.92.
In comparison, Sri Lanka’s best bowler, Chamari Atapattu’s six wickets came at an average of 17.66 and nearly twice the economy of Beams.
After a summer in which Beams took two wickets in six ODIs against India and New Zealand and career figures of just 12 scalps in her 14 ODI appearances, Southern Stars bowling coach Joe Dawes attributed the latest flood to a tweak to her approach.
"She’s had a really good off-season and worked really hard on a few things," Dawes told cricket.com.au.
"You can see it’s coming to fruition for her now.
“We’ve got her in a bit closer [to the stumps]. We found during the New Zealand series she was right out wide which messed with her angles a little bit.
"We’ve got her into the stumps and just attacking off-stump more.
"She’s worked really hard on her slider as well. She’s confident, she’s got some poles and she’s put the strangle on these guys throughout the series.
"She’s up and about which is great because she’s worked so hard."
Beams had never made an ODI appearance in Asia before this tour, but has even joked about applying for a Sri Lankan passport since making herself at home on the spin-friendly decks.
Writing for the CA website at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Callum Kanoniuk said: “The leg-spin of Kristen Beams once again did the bulk of the damage with the ball for the Southern Stars.”
Describing the Tasmanian’s career-best 4-15 at Dambulla, Kanoniuk said: “Beams was far and away the pick of the bowlers.
“Finding a poor delivery in her 10 consecutive overs would prove difficult as her sustained control and well-executed variations often left the batters pinned to the crease and desperately seeking a way to make it to the non-striker’s end.
“With Imalka Mendis and Dilani Manodara falling in consecutive balls, Beams came within an exaggerated front-foot defensive stroke of claiming a hat-trick.
”You could almost hear the sigh of relief from the locals as Beams collected her gold cap from the umpire for the final time.”