LISA STHALEKAR: Caoimhe Bray quickly following in the footsteps of Ellyse Perry, Meg Lanning and Alyssa Healy

The WBBL has a lot to celebrate in its opening week, its 10th anniversary and the emergence of our next superstar.

Now I have seen my fair share of young stars.

I saw the great potential in Meg Lanning, Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry as 11 and 12 year olds.

I saw the same thing on the opening night of the WBBL on Sunday this time it was on the main stage with a TV audience.

Having just turned 15 years old, making her the youngest ever WBBL player, Caoimhe Bray (pronounced Keeva) disturbed the stumps of the biggest six hitting machine in women’s cricket, Deandra Dottin.

In her first over of WBBL, at the Adelaide Oval if you don’t mind, Caoimhe dropped the first delivery a little short, with Dottin getting herself in great position to pull the ball for the flattest six I have ever seen.

Next delivery, she edged the ball for four. The third ball was driven down the ground with distain and power once again.

The fourth delivery was a wide that was re-bowled for no run.

The fifth ball was a dot ball and the final ball was a dipping yorker that beat Dottin all ends up.

Cue the little fist pump and a massive grin as Bray collected her first wicket in senior cricket.

What was evident is that Bray looked calm, worked towards a plan, focused on execution and was running in hard each and every ball.

It didn’t matter that she was hit for 15 runs in her first over, she had one more ball to execute correctly and she did it with composure and resilience.

Something that all the players I mentioned above had in spades and so does Bray.

To top the night off Caoimhe combined with the Scottish import, Sarah Bryce, to peel off 32 runs in 18 deliveries to ensure that the Sixers chased down the Renegades score of 178 with an over to spare.

Again, what impressed me was her self-assurance that she could get the job done.

With the field up, she decided to go over the offside to secure the win with a boundary. I am sure at no point did failure cross her mind, only victory was in her sights.

Does a debut match get any better? Well Ellyse Perry’s debut T20I in 2008, a year before Caoimhe was born, managed to win her player of the match at the MCG with 29* (25) and 4-20. However, that isn’t the only thing that they have in common.

The Year 9 student has already experienced success at an elite level having made her international football debut with the Junior Matildas at the Under-19 Women’s Asia Cup earlier this year.

Like the young Perry, Bray still wants to juggle football and cricket for as long as she can and doesn’t mind being compared to her idol Perry as she has been her idol since she was “very, very” young.

The family have already moved from the Hunter Valley to Newcastle to reduce the amount of time she and her mother Kim are travelling to her sporting commitments.

Close to 1000km a week was being covered to ensure they gave their daughter the best opportunities to excel in sport.

Caoimhe’s second match at North Sydney Oval last night was just as impressive, despite not getting the results she or her team would have liked.

She moved extremely well around the boundary in the field, finished with 0-21 off her three overs and scored 2 (3) as the Sixers went down to the Adelaide Strikers.

One thing is for sure, we will watch with interest as the girl with a Gaelic first name, but with no real Irish heritage carves out her career in cricket.