Rachael Louise Haynes (born 26 December 1986) is an Australian cricketer who has been a winner of five world championships as part of the national women’s squad. As a left-handed batter Haynes is currently vice-captain of Australia. She also plays captain for Sydney Thunder. Sydney Thunder is in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and is a player in the national team of New South Wales within the women’s national cricket league (WNCL).
Education and early life
In her first backyard cricket memory, Haynes recalls using a bat made from the fence while playing with her cousins. She also remembers “always” watching games on TV, which eventually inspired her to adore Shane Warne before being inspired by Belinda Clark and Cathryn Fitzpatrick. 1. Accepting the invitation of a neighboring friend, Haynes joined North Balwyn Cricket Club at the age of 11 for her first encounter with the game. Shortly after she was invited to Box Hill Cricket Club and was able to play in the senior ranks with her the future Australian teammates Meg Lanning.
Haynes went to Our Lady of Sion College and completed the VCE during 2004. After earning an Diploma of Management through Box Hill Institute, she completed her studies at Australian Catholic University and graduated with the Bachelor’s degree in Marketing.She’s currently pursuing the Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Southern Queensland.
Domestic career
Ladies National Cricket League
Haynes was a part of the WNCL debut with Victoria in the 2005-06 season. In the second match of the 2006-07 campaign to assist in defeating New South Wales in eight wickets. However, her team was defeated in the final game by just three wickets. In 2008-09, Haynes made her mark with her first century, and finished with the title of fourth highest scorer with 357 runs in averaging of 44.62. 10] Her impressive campaign was ended in a disappointing way after she was disqualified to duck out of the final. 11 Haynes is also the fifth highest run-scorer in the 2009-10 season with 397 runs at 39.70. Then she was the second-highest scorer in the league in the 2010-11 season (making 284 runs at 56.80)[13and scored the highest with her teammates in the championship final by scoring the highest score of 68 from 76 balls, even though Victoria was defeated in the championship final against New South Wales for a third consecutive season. [14]
In the lead-up to the 2011-12 season Haynes relocated to Sydney and became a member of New South Wales’ WNCL team. In the 15th season, she was the league’s top player for most runs , scoring 402 runs with an average 57.42,[16that included an innings of 156 runs from 1339 balls at the end of the season game, which helped her beat the team she played for in her previous Victorian team with 70 runs. 17 Haynes would later go on to win six more championships in New South Wales. Her best moments during this time include her standout performances in the following categories:
- The 2013-14 final, Haynes proved herself as a competent left-arm medium pace bowler who took three wickets and scoring 20 runs , in a contest reduced to 20 overs per team because of rain. In the chase for runs she scored 33 not out of 29 balls, to secure an eight-wicket win. [18]
- Haynes was fifth in the run-scoring rankings in the 2014-15 she scored 327 runs in a time of 46.71. Haynes was awarded her second consecutive award, the Player of the Final accolade by scoring 79 runs off the 89 she scored in a 144-run defeat from South Australia in the championship final. [18]
- The second-highest number of runs during the 2017-18 season with 363 runs at an average 90.75,[19[19 Haynes was awarded the tournament’s Player of the Year, while her team lost to Western Australia by 51 runs in the championship. [18][20]
- Haynes was the highest scorer of this year’s 2017-19 Final with Queensland Haynes scored 79 of 105 deliveries in the victory of 31 runs. [18]
Women’s Big Bash League
Haynes was signed by Haynes signed with Sydney Thunder for the inaugural WBBL season. [21In the final game clash against The Sydney Sixers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on January 24, 2016 she scored the most runs with 37 runs, helping the Thunder achieve a win of three wickets and win the league’s first title. [22]
Leading run scorer of Thunder Thunder across WBBL03 with 426 runs, Haynes was named the team’s Most Valuable player for the entire season. She was the leader by hitting the ball again in WBBL04with 376 runs at the rate of 31.33. Her team finished the regular season in second position but were ejected from the competition by Brisbane Heat in an “incredible”[26semi-final match at the Drummoyne Oval on 19 January 2019 that was praised for its tight conclusion.
05, Haynes extended her contract with the Thunder and was appointed captain of her team replacing Alex Blackwell. After a disappointing year, she reacted with aplomb the following season and led her team to win the WBBL06 title. With 21 points, she was not eliminated in the final of the championship at the North Sydney Oval, Haynes was the sole member of the Thunder playing XI who played in the team’s first final victory. [28][29]
International career
2009 The ODI and Test debut
In the final stages of the 2008-09 campaign, Haynes was picked for the Australia Youth team for a series of three matches with New Zealand A but was not able to put together a significant score, scoring the score at 13.00 when the series went to a draw 1-1. 30 Later in this year’s season, Haynes was chosen for the squad’s national tour to England. Haynes made her debut for the international team in an ODI match against England on the grounds of Lord’s on July 7, 2009. She scored 26 runs from 45 balls, before she was caught by Holly Colvin. The match was cancelled due to rain after Australia’s innings was over. [31]
Haynes made her debut in the Test three days after on New Road, Worcester. Australia batted first before crashing to 5/28 in the first hour, which brought Haynes into the crease to be with Captain Jodie Fields. They added record sixth-wicket partnerships of 228 runs in 75.3 overs. In narrowly missing an unbeaten century in her debut Haynes had to be bowled off by Laura Marsh for 98, that led to stumps being set at 7/271. The next day she bowled 4 overs, not conceding a single run, and took her first Test wicket, dismissing Nicky Shaw as Australia took an advantage of 41 runs in the first innings. Haynes scored 16 runs in the second innings, as the hosts set England an ambitious goal of 273 to win. The home team made it to 3106, but insufficient time meant that the game was an even draw. [34]
2010: T20I debut
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Haynes was a force as an opener as well as a middle-order batsman throughout the 2009-10 Rose Bowl series against New Zealand. In the opening ODI at Adelaide Oval, she put on an opening partnership of 102 runs along together with Shelley Nitschke, top-scoring with 56 off 73 balls and helping the hosts secure winning by 115 runs. In the fifth game at the Junction Oval, she came at number five and struck an unbeaten 75 from 74 balls . This ensure a 103-run victory that sealed a 5-0 sweep. [36Haynes won the fifth match with a 103-run win. Haynes completed the game with 173 runs and 86.50. [37]
On the 21st of February, 2010 Haynes took part in the T20 International debut at Bellerive Oval against New Zealand. She was batsman at 6 and was unbeaten until fourteen, but she was to watch from the side of the non-striker’s thigh as Alyssa Healy was snubbed by a ball in the final ball of the game and resulted in a 2-run losing score for Australia. Then, she achieved her the career-high T20I scores on the 26th of Februari at Westpac Stadium, taking 3/19 from just two overs in the 59-run defeat to New Zealand. [39]
Haynes was chosen as a participant in 2010’s World Twenty20 in the Caribbean but didn’t play in a match during the event. [40][4141 Australia was able to win the title by beating New Zealand in the final. [42]
2011.12: Ashes and World Twenty20 victory
In the sole match of the 2010-11 Women’s Ashes, at Bankstown Oval, Haynes scored just 21 and four over two innings. Haynes did contribute a significant contribution through the ball in the first afternoon, when she dismissed Jenny Gunn for 33, ending a 65-run partnership with Gunn with Charlotte Edwards (England’s largest partnership during the game). Australia was able to win by seven wickets, returning to the Ashes for the first time in 8 years. [43]
Haynes was picked as a 2012. World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka however she was denied the chances to bat in all but one match. The most memorable performance of the tournament took place in the semi-final match against Australia West Indies, when she was a late-innings comeback of 15 balls in a low-scoring match that Australia defeated in a 28-run win. Her team defeated England with four runs at the end of their match, securing two consecutive T20 World Championships. [46]
2013-16 World Cup success, exclusion from the national team
In the 2013 Women’s Cricket World Cup in India, Haynes played several important innings in Australia’s resounding campaign. In the opening match during the event, she scored the most with 39 off an easy pitch for bowlers which helped to post an unassuming total of 175 which led to a 91-run win over Pakistan. 47 Haynes was awarded Player of the Match honors in the subsequent match she scored 83 from 108 deliveries in the match against South Africa as Australia chased down the target of 189, with just three wickets left. Then, she scored 71 not out from 60 deliveries in a convincing nine-wicket victory over Sri Lanka, securing her team’s spot in the tournament’s final. 49 Haynes continued to impress by using her bat during the last match match against Australia’s West Indies, scoring 52 off 74 balls, with Australia winning by 114 runs, and to be awarded the 50-over world championship. Haynes finished the tournament as the fourth highest scorer with 273 runs, with an average of 45.50. [51]
Haynes suffered a dip in her form in this year’s Women’s Ashes, scoring ten and 23 in a draw match at Sir Paul Getty’s Ground , before having back-to-back ducks during the opening two games of the ODI portion of the tour. She put together an impressive comeback in the opening T20I at Chelmsford along with Ellyse Perry to create a partnership with 55 runs, but it wasn’t enough to keep the team from losing by 15 runs. [55 For the 2nd T20I on the 29th of August, on the 29th of August in Southampton, Haynes faced just two balls, and she scored three not out. Australia fell short by five wickets and giving up to England the Ashes in the hands of England. It would take three and a half years before Haynes made a second international appearance in cricket. [57]
In the weeks leading up towards the 2013-14 Women’s Ashes, Haynes–who had already been picked for the tournament and was working with the Perth squad–was advised that the traveling group would be reduced and she would not be required. Haynes didn’t receive an official contract with the national team for the 2014-15 season , and made the decision to complete her college degree prior to finding full-time employment. In the latter half of 2016 Haynes was considering quitting cricket. A three-day work schedule by Cricket NSW and a $17,000 state contract increase (due to the team’s sponsorship increase) along with the hope of getting “one final chance to make it into the Australian team” prior to the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup, convinced Haynes to stay with the game. [57][58]
2017: Captaincy and Comeback
Haynes was not the first choice for Australia’s tour through New Zealand in early 2017. In the end, she was offered an unannounced call-up in the last minutes due to injuries sustained by Alex Blackwell and Ellyse Perry gave her a long-awaited second opportunity. On February 26, in Eden Park, in her return to international cricket, Haynes scored 50 runs from 61 balls during an ODI in New Zealand. (59) Despite the game that ended with a five-wicket loss to Australia even though Haynes faced problems with her fitness the next day, selectors believed that she had played enough to be eligible for the national team’s agreement for 2017-18. [57]
Recovering from a major ankle injury in the nick of the right amount of time Haynes has been named to Australia’s team of this year’s Cricket World Cup in England. The next official game in Australian colors was an opening game in the group stage against Pakistan. While Meg Lanning being carefully managed because of a persistent shoulder problem, Haynes’ stepped into the team and assumed the captain of the national team for first time. She scored 28 from 47 balls for an impressive 159-run win. [63The 63 Haynes took part in one final match in the tournament. She served as captain for the second time, making an unlucky duck using the bat however, she picked up two important top-order wickets using the ball in a 59-run win over South Africa. After Australia’s exit in the semi-finals Cricket Australia shortly thereafter announced Lanning was out for up to six months. [65]
Haynes was named captain of Australia during this year’s Women’s Ashes in Lanning’s absence–a choice that some commentators described as “strange”[66as well as “curious”. The second one-day international match of the series, played at Coffs Harbour International Stadium where she scored 89 runs out from 58 balls , which helped her team beat the opposition at 75-runs. [68Haynes Haynes scored 12 not out from 10 balls in the first T20I on the North Sydney Oval, which Australia defeated by six wickets, securing the Ashes. [69]
2018-19 World Championships: Fourth 100th anniversary of the first century
Following returning Meg Lanning and the retirement of Alex Blackwell, the National Selection Panel appointed Haynes as Australia’s vice-captain prior to an overseas trip to India in March 2018. [70]
In October of 2018, Haynes was named in the Australian squad for this year’s World Twenty20 tournament in the Caribbean. She played a quickfire unbeaten 29 runs from 18 balls during the group stage of a 33-run win in the group stage against New Zealand and 25 off 15 balls in a semi-final that saw 71 runs defeat to West Indies. West Indies. [73] Australia won against England during the semi-final by 8 wickets, which was Haynes her 3rd T20 World Cup with Australia.
In the sole game of the 2019 Women’s Ashes, played at Taunton, Haynes formed a third-wicket partnership of 162 runs alongside Ellyse Perry, who was in Taunton for the opening innings. In her second career match, Haynes fell just short of a century in a Test and was dismissed for a sloppy Australian cricket’s legendary scores of 87. The match ended in the drawing, Australia successfully won this series in order to keep the Ashes. [77]
On October 7, 2019 Haynes made her first century in international cricket with a score of 118 from the 132 balls of the 110-run ODI win over Sri Lanka at Allan Border Field. [78]
2020: Fifth World Championship
Haynes The most notable performance in her performance at the Women’s T20 World Cup occurred during a group stage game in the group stage against Sri Lanka at the WACA. She scored 60 off 47 balls, and formed an unbeaten 95-run partnership together with Meg Lanning to help Australia come back from 3/10 and beat Sri Lanka with five wickets. In the quarter-final match with New Zealand at the Junction Oval Haynes put up an impressive stand of 32 runs in the final innings with Ellyse Perry. Her team won 4 runs. In the tournament final played at Melbourne Cricket Ground. Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia beat India with a score of 85 runs, which was Haynes her fourth consecutive successful T20 world championships. After being ordered to undergo an inconvenient drug test, Haynes was famously not present for some of the post-match celebrations that featured the entire team performing on the stage alongside Katy Perry. [6][82][83][84][85]
On the 7th of October, 2020 Haynes returned to fill as captain in place of an injured Lanning who was able to lead Australia in a record-setting 232-run win in the match against New Zealand at Allan Border Field. This was Australia’s 21st consecutive win in an ODI match and equalled the record established by the 2003 Ricky Ponting Australian Men’s Team. [86The 86-year-old Haynes scored score of 44, 82, and 96 in the 3-1 Rose Bowl sweep to be named the Player of the Series. [87]
In January 2022 Haynes was selected as the vice-captain for Australia’s team for their match against England to play the Women’s Ashes. The following year, Haynes was selected as vice-captain of the Australia side for the 2022 Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand. [89]
International centuries
| Rachael Haynes’s One-Day International centuries[90] | |||||||
| # | Runs | Match | Opponents | City/Country | Venue | Year | |
| 1 | 118 | 56 |  Sri Lanka |  Sydney, Australia | North Sydney Oval | 2019[91] | |
| 2 | 130 | 69 |  England |  Hamilton, New Zealand | Seddon Park | 2022[92] |
Personal life
Prior to signing a national team deal for the 2017-18 season Haynes was employed in a range of full-time positions, including as Commercial Operations Coordinator at Bowls Australia and as an Account Coordinator at a communication and talent management firm located in Sydney. [5][93]
Haynes is frequently referred to as “Des” (or “Dessie” in the eyes of her fellow players in honor of West Indian opening batsman Desmond Haynes. The pair who share their surnames were photographed in their Australian ladies’ tour in the Caribbean in September of 2019. [94]
In April of 2017, New South Wales Blues player Steve O’Keefe received a fine of $20,000 for having made “highly inappropriate” remarks fueled by alcohol towards Haynes and her co-worker at the end-of-season Cricket NSW awards ceremony.
Since the move from Sydney, Haynes has owned one cat, named Lily. When she was trying to end an argument with her pet and an stray Haynes was accidentally bit on the foot during an “unfortunate feline accident” which resulted in an infection that forced her to miss for the duration of the 2019-20 WBBL season.
Haynes His partner was former Australian as well as New South Wales cricketer Leah Poulton. They welcomed their very first baby, Hugo Poulton-Haynes, together in October 2021. [
