'I have white-line fever' - Ainsworth joins Australia's pace race

Returning home from a pre-season trip, Chloe Ainsworth in an impromptu move decided to show off her self-taught skills on the piano at Brisbane Airport.

She held court and played a couple of pieces much to the initial amusement of her team-mates and those listening in, who were left impressed by her hidden talent and confidence in expressing it.

"I was involved in music growing up and was pretty good at it," Ainsworth, who turned 18 in September, told ESPNcricinfo. "My team-mates thought it was all pretty funny. It was good to make them laugh."

The softly-spoken Ainsworth has injected youthful exuberance in Perth Scorchers, who are built around a veteran core and have enjoyed a bounce back season. After failing to make finals last season in a disappointing title defence, Scorchers finished with an 8-6 regular season record to qualify for the finals. They will face either Brisbane Heat or Sydney Thunder in Wednesday's Eliminator final in a bid to play Adelaide Strikers for the title.

Ainsworth has played a big role in her debut WBBL season to spearhead the attack with 15 wickets at an average of 18.00, enough to get her named in the official team of the tournament announced on Monday. She might be mild-mannered off the field, but Ainsworth follows a lineage of quick bowlers.

"I have white-line fever," she laughed, citing former Australia quick Mitchell Johnson as a childhood hero. "I can be very competitive and it just helps me out there being fired up."

She has been able to back up her snarls at batters. Ainsworth has been clocked around 115kph and is poised to eventually hit the 120s. "I think I can get quicker. That's the aim...to bowl quicker," she said.

This Chloe Ainsworth is a seriously talented young cricketer#WBBL09 pic.twitter.com/YjoDhtyEg6

— Weber Women's Big Bash League (@WBBL) November 22, 2023

Ainsworth started off as a wicketkeeper in junior cricket before realising she could bowl faster than anyone else. She rose quickly through the ranks and played one match in Australia's Under-19 World Cup campaign earlier in the year before breaking her thumb.

Even though she's been well down the order for Scorchers and faced only 20 deliveries, Ainsworth can bat and particularly enjoys hitting the ball hard and long. She has the capabilities of being a genuine allrounder, but right now it's all about her pace bowling.

Bustling into the crease, powered by a burly frame, Ainsworth unleashes rockets and she's already armed with a deadly yorker. She concentrates on pitching the ball up, but has utilised hostile short-pitched bowling to good effect at the traditionally pace friendly WACA ground.

Ainsworth can move the ball around making her a tough proposition and an acceptable economy of 7.29 suggests an ability to maintain control. There is work needed to become a more rounded pace bowler, but the foundations have been built.

"I will need more variations, especially in T20 cricket," she said. "You need different deliveries to pull out in different situations. I also want to keep learning how to control swing.

"But I try to keep things simple. Cricket is cricket. I'm there to take wickets and I'm backed in to do that."

The team's confidence in Ainsworth was underlined when Scorchers captain Sophie Devine entrusted her to bowl the final over of a nerve-jangling match against defending champions Adelaide Strikers at the WACA.

"When there were a few overs left, I looked at the scoreboard and realised that I was going to bowl [the final over]. I was excited," she said.

With Strikers needing 12 runs to chase down a total of 166, Ainsworth was denied a heroic finish by England allrounder Dani Gibson who hit a last ball boundary to win the match. Ainsworth relied on bowling on a length, but it proved predictable for Gibson who clubbed 15 runs in the final over.

"It was disappointing to not get the job done. Everyone got around me after the match to make sure I wasn't upset," she said. "It's a learning experience. It's about being really clear over the plans and how to execute."

Ainsworth burst onto the scene with an impressive WBBL debut against Hobart Hurricanes in Launceston on the same day as her Year 12 graduation.

"I had to miss the graduation, but I checked in with my mates on FaceTime after the game so that was at least something," she said.

Her subsequent debut at the WACA netted a three-wicket haul against Hurricanes, including clean bowling star batter Heather Graham with a pearler that knocked out middle stump.

Ainsworth's starring role saw her thrusted in front of the cameras for a post game media engagement along the boundary of the Lillee-Marsh stand, while giddy family and friends over the fence chanted her name with gusto.

"My mates were taking the mickey out of me," she laughed. "It feels weird having attention. I'm not the most out there person, but it's all part of being a cricketer at this level."

The spotlight still feels rather surreal for Ainsworth, who last week was supposed to be celebrating the end of schooling with friends in a rite of passage for high school graduates in Australia.

Instead, as temperatures soared in Perth amid a pre-summer heatwave, she's been putting in the hard yards in a determined bid to help Scorchers push for a second title in three seasons.

"It would have been nice to celebrate with friends, but I'm committed to cricket," Ainsworth said. "It will be amazing to play in the finals. I'll be doing everything I can because I'm competitive. I want to win."

That should be music to the ears of Scorchers fans.