Born in Bairnsdale in eastern Victoria, Molineux has been involved in cricket since her early childhood. When she was about 10 years old, she was talent spotted by John Harmer, former head coach of Australia and England's women's teams, who was engaged as a private coach for her. She took seven wickets for zero runs in a Victorian primary school game as a 12-year-old and then as a 13-year-old she made 98 off 60 balls, which included five sixes. She made her men's A grade debut for the West Bairnsdale Cricket Club at 16. She took a hat-trick while playing for Gippsland in the Under-18 VicSpirit Championships in 2013 and played in both the Victorian U-15's and U-18's sides.
Limited overs career
Molineux debuted for the Victorian Spirit in Australia's women's domestic limited overs competition, the Women's National Cricket League on 15 October 2016 against the ACT Meteors. In her second match against the Western Fury, she dismissed Heather Graham for her debut limited overs wicket. Taking a further two wickets in the innings, she finished with figures of 3/41. She followed this up with another three-wicket haul against the New South Wales Breakers where she also scored 20 runs opening the batting. She top scored with 55 in the match against the Queensland Fire to record her first half century in the format. Molineux finished the season with a total seven wickets at an average of 20.71.
Twenty20 and international career
Molineux made her women's Twenty20 debut for the Melbourne Renegades during the inaugural Women's Big Bash League season in 2015–16. Playing 10 of the 14 games for Melbourne, Molineux took her first WT20 wicket in her fourth match – Nicola Carey of the Sydney Thunderclean bowled for 13. In the match against the Sydney Sixers on 8 January, she took her first three-wicket haul, collecting the wickets of Alyssa Healy, Sara McGlashan and Ashleigh Gardner all caught and bowled. The following day in the match against the Thunder, Molineux improved on her performance taking figures of 3/18. She returned the following season and played all 14 matches for the Renegades. During the opening weekend double header against the Adelaide Strikers, she scored a career high 37 not out in the first match and took career best figures of 4/18 and scored 28 runs with the bat in a player of the match performance in the second. Promoted up the order to opener midway through the season, Molineux equalled her top score of 37 in her match against the Perth Scorchers on 29 December 2016. She finished the season with a career total of 16 wickets at 26.75 and 305 runs at an average of 21.78. Her performance earned her the inaugural Betty Wilson Young Player of the Year award at the 2017 Allan Border Medal Ceremony. Named in honour of Betty Wilson, one of Australia's great all-rounders, it recognises a female cricketer who, prior to 5 December 2015, was aged under 25 and had played 10 or fewer matches. In October 2018, she was named in Australia's squad for the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies. In November 2018, she was named in the Melbourne Renegades' squad for the 2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season. In April 2019, Cricket Australia awarded her with a contract ahead of the 2019–20 season. In July 2019, she was added to Australia's squad for the one-off Test match in the Women's Ashes against England. She made her Test debut for Australia against England women on 18 July 2019. In January 2020, she was named in Australia's squad for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia.
Representative career
Molineux was selected to play for the Australia Governor-General's XI against the touring Indian women's team in January 2016 and again in November 2016 against the touring South Africa. In March and April 2016, she played eight matches for Australia A against Sri Lanka A and England A in the 2015–16 Women's Development Series in Colombo.
Personal life
She graduated from Nagle College, Bairnsdale in 2016 and plans to study occupational therapy. She currently resides in Fitzroy, an inner-city suburb of Melbourne.. She is house-mates with her two Renegades and Australian team-mates, Georgia Wareham and Tayla Vlaeminck. In November 2019, Molineux announced that she would be taking a break from the Women's Big Bash League, due to mental health issues.
