The second installment of the Womens BBL is set to explode into action on Saturday with Osborne’s Sydney Thunder side chasing back to back titles.

“I’m really looking forward to it. There’s probably more hype around it than last year,” the Tamworth product said.

They’ve had lots of new sponsors come on board, and as a response to the ratings last year, Network Ten have increased the number of games it will broadcast live to 12.

“Womens sport is Australia is going ahead in leaps and bounds and it’s great to be a part of it,” Osborne said.

She said one of the things that surprised her the most last season was the reception the womens BBL received, with the tournament beating all expectations.

“It was awesome to be part of,” she said.

“And the really good thing about it is players are wanting to come out to play. We’re fortunate to have Stafanie Taylor, who’s the West Indian captain and Harmanpreet Kaur.”

Kaur captained India to victory in the recent Asian Cricket Council Women’s Twenty20 Asia Cup, and Osborne said the opportunity to train and play alongside, and against, such world-class players was great.

She expects this season to be very different for the Thunder. Last year no-one really expected much of them.

“This year we’ll be chased,” she said.

“We’re under no illusions we’ll have to play pretty good cricket to win.”

They start their campaign against the Melbourne Stars at North Sydney Oval on Saturday night in what will be the first ever women’s domestic sporting match to be broadcast prime time on free to air television.

The Stars have been labeled by the Melbourne media as the tournament favourites and will be a tough challenge first up.

“The Stars are heavily reliant on Meg (Lanning). If she scores runs they’re a good chance of winning,” Osborne said.

They’ve also got a couple of handy spinners in their international contingent, but if the Thunder can perform to their abilities Osborne said they should be able to come away with a win.

She isn’t the only player from the region set to be involved in the tournament with Gunnedah’s Emily Leys part of the Sydney Sixers squad.