The Analysis: Sophie Molineux shines

ELIZABETH BOTCHERBY: Last November, Molineux suffered a stress fracture in her foot which kept her out of action for the best part of nine months. In her comeback competition, she has returned with a bang

Australians have dominated the early stages of the women's Hundred, specifically a handful of players who have endured tough times over the past couple of years.

At Southern Brave, Amanda-Jade Wellington is ripping it up with the ball, taking a tournament-leading seven scalps from her 12 sets.

The 25-year-old, who made her international debut back in 2016, has found herself on the fringes of the national side in recent years, always traveling but rarely selected, and took a break from the game back in 2019 after falling out of love with cricket.

However, after removing highly-rated New Zealander Amelia Kerr in her tournament opener and the tricky trio of Lizelle Lee, Deandra Dottin and Sophie Ecclestone last time out – she finished with match-winning figures of 3 for 27 against Manchester Originals, the spinner is doing all she can to catch the eye of Shelley Nitschke.

Birmingham Phoenix batter Ellyse Perry is another one who is making the most of her time in The Hundred.

The 31-year-old allrounder is a veteran of over 260 international appearances and a multiple World Cup winner but found herself surplus to requirements during the Commonwealth Games, watching the entire tournament from the dugout.

^{Sophie Molineux batting against Northern Superchargers [David Rogers/Getty Images]}

Due to an ongoing back injury, her bowling has been sporadic over the past 12 months. Her batting was also poor during the 2021/22 Women's Big Bash - although she top-scored for Sydney Sixers with 358 runs, her 91.32 strike rate was called into question.

In the orange of Birmingham Phoenix, however, the Perry of old has returned. She opened her tournament with a blistering 58 (31) against Welsh Fire, followed it up with 39 not out (28) against Trent Rockets and added 22 not out off 17 against Northern Superchargers for good measure. Only the phenom that is Beth Mooney has out-scored her in the competition so far while her tournament strike rate is 156.57. It's unlikely she'll be on the international sidelines for too long.

But the Australian who you can't help but root for is Sophie Molineux.

The 24-year-old burst onto the international scene in 2018 and quickly wracked up 38 caps, 27 of which came in her favoured T20 format. In the shortest format, she picked up 47 wickets with her left-arm spin and looked equally at home bowling in the powerplay, the middle overs or at the death. Last autumn, she was in solid form, taking 10 wickets and conceding just 5.85 runs per over for Melbourne Renegades in the WBBL.

Then, she suffered a stress fracture in her right foot in the final week of the competition. The bone refused to heal, and she was forced to go under the knife to have a plate inserted. Her hopes of playing in the Women's Ashes, the 2022 Women's World Cup and the Commonwealth Games – all of which Australia won – gone in the blink of an eye.

The Hundred is her first competitive cricket since last November and boy, has she come back with a bang.

Against Welsh Fire, she scored a run-a-ball 29 and returned 0 for 15 before dismissing Bryony Smith and Sarah Glenn against Trent Rockets to open her wicket account. But her best performance to date was saved for Northern Superchargers.

With the bat, she thwacked 24 runs off just 13 balls and shared a 40-run fourth-wicket stand off 25 balls with her compatriot Perry. Her batting is another string to her already impressive bow.

^{Amanda-Jade Wellington is another Australian who has impressed in the early stages of The Hundred [Mike Hewitt/Getty Images]}

With the ball, she was faultless. Her two sets in the powerplay yielded 10 dot balls, Alyssa Healy and later Gaby Lewis completely bamboozled by her varying speed, flight and line.

Returning in the middle overs, Healy paddled a single off Molineux's 11th delivery (ball 41) and after two dots, Lewis followed suit. However, with her 15th ball of the day, she snared Healy, stumped by Amy Jones after being deceived by a quicker ball.

Completing the demonstration of her range of talents, she returned to bowl the penultimate set and while a six from Laura Wolvaardt off ball 91 rather ruined her figures (she was 1 for 2 after 15 balls), she exacted her revenge with the following delivery. The South African tried to slog a flat length ball and could only pick out Perry on the run.

Following a single for Alice Davidson-Richards, she should have had a third – Georgia Elwiss dropping Hollie Armitage to allow the Superchargers to sneak two – before a dot ball (her 15th of the day) completed her allocation. Her match figures: 2 for 11.

Given her fellow bowlers conceded 40 runs off 25 deliveries in the powerplay and Birmingham Phoenix only snuck home by five runs, her contribution - with bat and ball - proved to be invaluable.

In her absence from the international side, Alana King has emerged as Australia's golden bowler, picking up a team-leading 14 wickets in 11 T20Is since the start of December 2021. Her leggies have earned comparisons to the great Shane Warne. Jess Jonassen has also impressed, playing in nine out of 11 matches and taking 13 wickets.

Forcing her way back into Australia's plans will be no easy task for Molineux, but if the remainder of her comeback competition follows her first three performances, she'll have done her chances no harm at all.