Australia’s top-order batter, Laura Harris, has joined Marie Kelly for the fastest fifty record in women’s T20 cricket. The spell was achieved in the third match of the ongoing Women’s Super Smash, in which Laura scored a half-century in 15 balls in her debut outing for Otago Women. The record was previously set by Kelly in 2022 for Warwickshire against Gloucestershire.
On Sunday, December 28, 2025, Harris made her debut for Otago in the Super Smash 2025-26 and ended up scoring 52 runs off 17 balls at a strike rate of 305.88, including six fours and four sixes. Earlier, Harris scored three half-centuries in 18-ball and one in 19-ball in T20s. Her six 50-plus scores in T20s have been achieved within 20 balls.
Harris’ campaign in the recently concluded Women’s Big Bash League 2025 wasn’t an effective one. Playing for the Sydney Thunder Women, the batter scored only 69 runs in eight innings played at a strike rate of 197.14. Sydney finished the tournament as the second bottom-most team at no. 7 with nine points, including four wins and five defeats in 10 matches. Hobart Hurricanes Women were the winners of the WBBL 2025, finishing at the top of the table rankings with 15 points.
In the third match of the Women’s Super Smash 2025-26, Otago Sparks defeated Canterbury Magicians by six wickets. Harris was declared Player of the Match with her half-century, leading Otago to their first win of the tournament. Canterbury started the innings, but lacked from their opening batters.
By the fifth over, they lost two wickets of Kate Anderson (10 off 17) and Natalie Cox (2 off 5). Coming in next, Izzy Sharp, however, took control and managed to score an unbeaten 65 runs off 47 balls. Meanwhile, Jodie Dean added 34 runs off 30 balls. The remaining four batters that followed, however, could not score more than 20 runs and ended the innings at 145/6 in 20 overs.
Otago Women’s run chase was a comfortable one, with the team ending their innings in 15 overs. Besides Harris’ half-century, other decent contributions came from Felicity Leydon-Davis (22 off 20), Caitlin Blakely (22 off 16), and skipper Polly Inglis (20* off 19).
The Women’s Super Smash league 2025-26 has begun from December 26 and will continue until January 31, 2026, with the final in Christchurch. Otago Sparks currently lead in the table rankings with five points, with a net run rate of 2.593.
