Leah Poulton - Test Debut

Test Debut

Australia stayed in England for a bilateral series against the hosts—the reigning world champions in both ODIs and T20s—after the end of the World Twenty20. Poulton scored 33 and took two catches as Australia upset England in the only T20 by 34 runs. She played in all of the five ODIs, but was not successful, being dismissed for single-digit scores every time and ending with 26 runs at 5.20. She struggled to make an effective start in the matches, with a strike rate of 35.00 or less in each of her five innings and 29.54 overall. England won all the matches except the last, which was ended by persistent rain. Poulton made her Test debut against England in a one-off match at New Road in Worcester. Australia batted first and Poulton came in at No. 6. She lasted only 14 balls before being bowled by paceman Katherine Brunt for 1. This was part of a batting collapse that left the tourists at 5/28, but they recovered to reach 309. Poulton then bowled four overs in the first innings, taking 0/15. She took her first catch in Tests, removing Claire Taylor from the bowling of Lauren Ebsary. Australia took a 41-run lead and Poulton then scored 23 from 41 balls before being run out as the match ended in a draw.

Poulton had a modest WNCL in 2009–10, scoring 215 runs at 21.50. She reached double figures in nine of 11 innings, but was unable to convert the starts into large scores. Her highest score for the season was 42 against the Australian Capital Territory. She made 31, her second best effort of the competition, in the final, as New South Wales defeated Victoria by 59 runs to take their fifth WNCL title in a row. She had more success in the new T20 domestic competition, scoring 201 runs at 28.71. She top-scored with 58 in a seven-run defeat at the hands of Victoria and then made 38 in a nine-wicket win over South Australia. However, she made only six in the final as Victoria dismissed New South Wales for 75 to win by 52 runs.

After the domestic competition ended, Poulton played in the Rose Bowl series against New Zealand. She was omitted from the first two ODIs at the Adelaide Oval before being recalled for the last three matches held at the Junction Oval in Melbourne; Rachael Haynes was moved from an opening position into the middle-order to make way for Poulton. After making a duck in her first innings back, Poulton struck an unbeaten 104 from 116 balls in the fourth match, hitting nine fours and three sixes, putting on an unbroken opening stand of 163 with Shelley Nitschke as the Australians won by ten wickets. She made seven in the final match as the Australians completed a 5–0 sweep of the home ODI leg of the series. Poulton had little success in the T20s in Australia, scoring 0, 24 and 1 as the tourists bounced back to claim a whitewash. She then scored only one in the first T20 during the New Zealand leg of the tour and was left out for the second match, which the hosts won to sweep the T20s. Poulton played in all three ODIs in New Zealand, scoring 7, 47 and 31 as the Australians again swept the 50-over matches. In the second match at Invercargill, she struck seven boundaries in her 54-ball innings to help Australia make a rapid start to their chase of 256. In the final match, Australia faced a target of only 174 and Poulton hit 28 of her 31 runs from fours in a 16-ball innings, scoring almost two runs per ball. Australia won both of the last two matches by six wickets.