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 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.
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.
Youth cricket 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.
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 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.
Senior domestic debut 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 a 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. She made 1 and 11 as New South Wales won the last two fixtures by five and three wickets respectively to claim the title. However, Poulton contributed little to the team's triumph, managing only 16 runs at 5.33. At the end of the season she was appointed captain of the Australian Youth team and played in four matches against New Zealand A, scoring 127 runs at 31.75 with a best of 75 in the second of these fixtures. Sarah Tsukigawa had success against Poulton, dismissing her three times in a row. Australia won all but the last match.
Poulton was then made captain of the Australian Under-23 team for a tour of Sri Lanka in September 2004. The tourists played four one-dayers against the host nation's senior team and won all but the abandoned third match. In the second match, Poulton scored 14 and took her first wicket against senior opposition after bowling for the first time at the level. She made her top-score of the series with 48 in the third fixture, and made 33 and took 2/10 in the fourth match. Poulton then made her debut in non-one-day cricket against the Sri Lankans, scoring 10 before being run out. After Australia took a 102-run lead, she top-scored with 40 before declaring at 8/150 and leading the team to a 140-run win. She took a total of 0/24 from 10 overs.
After playing in the first four matches of the 2004–05 WNCL season, Poulton missed three matches in a row before playing her final match of the season against Queensland and being dropped for the three finals matches against Victoria. New South Wales lost the finals 2–1 after finishing the regular season first and earning the right to host the series. Poulton batted only three times and accumulated eight runs at 4.00 but New South Wales nevertheless won all of these five matches.
Poulton returned to form in the 2005–06 WNCL season, playing in all of New South Wales' 11 matches. After being run out for 39 in the first match against Western Australia, she made consecutive half-centuries against Western Australia and Queensland. New South Wales won seven of their eight round-robin matches to qualify to host the three-match finals series against Queensland. Up to this point, Poulton had only scored 24 runs at 6.00 in four WNCL finals matches and had been dropped ahead of the deciding series the previous season. In the first match at North Sydney Oval, Poulton top-scored with an unbeaten 70 to guide New South Wales to their target of 175 for an eight-wicket win. She made 28 of her state's 154 as Queensland took the series to a deciding match with a three-wicket win in the second match. Poulton was dismissed for five in the deciding match as New South Wales were bowled out for 146, before dismissing the visitors for 144 to claim a two-run win and the WNCL. She ended the season with 325 runs at 32.50 as New South Wales won 9 of their 11 matches to claim the title. Poulton bowled for the first time in the WNCL, conceding 18 runs from two overs.
Poulton won the Belinda Clark Medal four times, for the best performance for New South Wales in a season. She was the first player to score 1,500 runs in Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup, and the only player to score a century for New South Wales in Women's Twenty20 cricket.
International debut
These performances were not enough to gain selection in the Test and one-day series against India held in Adelaide immediately after the WNCL. However, Poulton was called up for her senior international debut against New Zealand in the Rose Bowl series staged at Allan Border Field in Brisbane at the start of the 2006–07 season because of an injury to fellow New South Wales batsman Alex Blackwell. The chairman of selectors Margaret Jennings said "She is a talented player with a free-flowing game, and we are keen to see how she performs against New Zealand, whom we expect to provide some very tough competition." Poulton played in all of the matches. She made 10 in her Twenty20 international debut and the match ended in a tie.
In her One Day International (ODI) debut, Poulton opened the batting with Melissa Bulow and occupied the crease for nine balls before being trapped leg before wicket by Sarah Burke for a duck. This left Australia at 1/0 with after 21 balls; the hosts eventually scraped home for a one-run victory. Poulton said that she was "way too nervous" during her maiden innings. She scored her first ODI runs in the following match, making 16 from 25 balls with 4 fours as the hosts won by a single wicket with a ball to spare. In the third match, Poulton scored her maiden ODI century, 101 from 136 balls, including seven fours and a six. Australia went on to seal the series with a five-run win. She then made 68 from 76 balls—including ten fours—in the next match before being run out, laying the foundation for Australia's 9/252 and an 85-run win. Poulton made only 12 in the final match as the hosts completed a clean sweep of the ODIs with a four-wicket win. In her debut series, she aggregated 197 runs at 39.60 with a strike rate of 70.86. Poulton is the 107th woman to play One Day International cricket for Australia.
During the 2006–07 season, Poulton played in all 11 of New South Wales' WNCL matches, scoring 227 runs at 20.63. New South Wales struggled in the first four round-robin matches, losing three. In the fifth match, against Western Australia, Poulton scored 64 to set up a six-wicket victory. New South Wales won their last four matches to qualify in second place for the final, which was hosted by Victoria. Poulton scored 17 and 39 in the first two matches, both times being run out. New South Wales scraped home by one wicket in the first match, but the hosts levelled the series with an eight-wicket win the next day. In the third game, she made only nine, but New South Wales eventually reached the target of 206 with three wickets in hand to take the finals 2–1. Poulton took her first WNCL wicket in the season, bowling a full quota of ten overs against Western Australia, taking 1/23. Her maiden wicket was Avril Fahey, trapped leg before wicket. She ended the season with one wicket at 63.00 at an economy rate of 3.50.