Nicole Elizabeth Bolton is an Australian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who plays as a left-handed

batter Batter or batters may refer to: Common meanings * Batter (cooking), thin dough that can be easily poured into a pan * Batter (baseball), person whose turn it is to face the pitcher * Batter (cricket), a player who is currently batting * Batter ...

and right-arm

off break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

bowler for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Sydney Sixers The Sydney Sixers are an Australian professional franchise men's cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League (BBL). Along with the Sydney Thunder, the Sixers are the successors of the New ...

Early life and education

Bolton was born in Subiaco, an inner western suburb of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, where she was raised and has lived most of her life. Between 1993 and 2003, she went to school at

Newman College, Perth Newman College is a pre-K–12 co-educational Catholic school which operates in the Marist tradition in Churchlands, Western Australia. It is currently a joint governed college with the governors being the Archbishop of Perth, Barry Hickey, ...

, and from 2003 to 2006 she attended Methodist Ladies' College in the Perth suburb of Claremont. As a young child, Bolton played cricket with her brothers in the back yard of the family home. However, she did not take up the game seriously until she was 15 years old, when she started playing for MLC in an organised competition. She also played at junior level for the Subiaco Marist Cricket Club. From 2008 to 2011, Bolton studied for a Bachelor of Event, Sport and Recreation Management at

Edith Cowan University Edith Cowan University (ECU) is a public university in Western Australia. It is named in honour of the first woman to be elected to an Parliaments of the Australian states and territories, Australian parliament, Edith Cowan, and is the only Aust ...

. In 2016, she completed a Graduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning, Education, at

Charles Darwin University Charles Darwin University (CDU) is an Australian public university with a main campus in Darwin and eight satellite campuses in some metropolitan and regional areas. It was established in 2003 after the merger of Northern Territory University, ...

Career

Bolton made her international debut on 23 January 2014, when she scored 124 runs off 152 balls. She joined

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

in 2014 but returned to Western Australia in 2015. In June 2015, she was named as one of Australia's touring party for the 2015 Women's Ashes in England, as a Test and ODI specialist who was not expected to play in the T20 internationals. In April 2018, she was one of the fourteen players to be awarded a national contract for the 2018–19 season by

Cricket Australia Cricket Australia (CA), formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board (ACB), is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the 'Australian Board of Control for International Crick ...

. In October 2018, she was named in Australia's squad for the

2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 The 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 was the sixth edition of the ICC Women's World Twenty20, hosted in the West Indies from 9 to 24 November 2018. It the second World Twenty20 hosted by the West Indies (after the 2010 edition), and the West Ind ...

tournament in the West Indies. In November 2018, she was named in the

Perth Scorchers The Perth Scorchers is an Australian domestic Twenty20 franchise cricket team representing the Western Australian city of Perth in the Big Bash League (BBL). The Scorchers are the current BBL Champions, having defeated the Sydney Sixers in the ...

' squad for the

2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season The 2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season or WBBL, 04 was the fourth season of the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), the semi-professional women's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament ran from 1 December 2018 to 26 ...

. In April 2019,

awarded her with a contract ahead of the 2019–20 season. In June 2019, Cricket Australia named her in Australia's team for their tour to England to contest the

Women's Ashes The Women's Ashes is the perpetual trophy in women's international cricket series between England and Australia. The name derives from the historic precedent of the Ashes in male cricket and, until 2013, was similarly decided exclusively on the ...

. She returned to the Australian squad, after taking a five-month break from the game dealing with a mental health issue. In October 2021, Bolton announced her retirement from playing state cricket. On 26 November 2022, she retired from all forms of cricket after playing in the

Women's Big Bash League The Women's Big Bash League (known as the WBBL and, for sponsorship reasons, the Weber WBBL) is the Australian women's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition. The WBBL replaced the Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup, which ran from the 2007–08 ...

final.

One Day International centuries

On 23 January 2014, Bolton scored a century during her international debut, in a

multiple format series

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

(ODI) match against England at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

. She was the first Australian woman to score a century on ODI debut, and the first woman of any nationality to score such a century against a team fielded by a Full Member of the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

(ICC). Subsequently, Bolton scored three other ODI centuries, against three other Full Member teams, in three other countries. Her third ODI century was reached during Australia's opening match of the

2017 Women's Cricket World Cup The 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup was an international women's cricket tournament that took place in England from 24 June to 23 July 2017. It was the eleventh edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, and the third to be held in England (after ...

; the other three were scored in bilateral series. Of all the women who have scored four or more ODI centuries, Bolton had the shortest career by number of ODIs, at just 50 matches between 2014 and 2019.

Personal life

Bolton's skills as a cook have been praised by her fellow international cricketer

Harmanpreet Kaur Harmanpreet Kaur ( ; born 8 March 1989) is an Indian cricketer who serves as the captain of the India Women's National Cricket Team in all formats . She plays as an all-rounder for the Indian women's cricket team; and was awarded the Arjuna Awa ...

as "pretty impressive". During Kaur's debut season with

Lancashire Thunder Lancashire Thunder were an English women's Twenty20 cricket team based in Manchester, Lancashire that competed in England’s women's Twenty20 competition, the Women's Cricket Super League. Thunder played their home matches at Old Trafford and va ...

in the

Kia Super League The Women's Cricket Super League (WCSL), known as the Kia Super League (KSL) for sponsorship reasons, was a semi-professional women's Twenty20 cricket competition in England and Wales operated by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The comp ...

, the two players shared an apartment. Kaur later told ESPNcricinfo:

References

External links

Nicole Bolton
at