Carey's maiden List A century (105) guided Tasmania to a 20-run win over the Meteors at Phillip Oval on Wednesday.

The Meteors made early inroads through Nicola Hancock in the first over of the match but the early scalp brought Carey to the crease for the visitors.

There she would stay for the next 44.1 overs, compiling a stellar 105 from 129 balls in a knock featuring 14 boundaries that left the Meteors attack scratching their heads

The 27-year-old all-rounder has become a mainstay for Australia and showed why as she steered Tasmania to 9-227.

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"She's a class player, she plays for Australia for a reason," ACT coach Dean said.

"She played a really good innings. We talked to our top four and said someone has got to go big, because if someone goes big, you're generally in with a good chance to put a good score on the board.

"She was better today. Our bowlers need to pick up the pieces and figure out how we can do it better next time we come up against her."

But the Meteors hadn't seen the last of Carey yet, as the veteran of 30 internationals came back to claim 3-39 from 10 overs with the ball as the hosts folded for 207.

Erin Osborne topped the charts for the Meteors with a 65-ball 54 while emerging star Maddie Penna belted 41, but it mattered little as the home side was bundled out with an over to spare.

"That's two innings in a row now for Erin, we know she is a quality player and the more time she spends out in the middle the better, she's very damaging, smart, clever, crafty," Dean said.

"Really pleased for Maddie. She got a chance to bat a little bit higher, she hits really strong up the ground. She's disappointed she didn't go on with it and win the game for us.

"That's a good thing, she'll be better for it. Hopefully next time we get into a similar situation, she knows exactly what she needs to do."

The Meteors have now fallen to a 1-1 record and have an extra two days to lick their wounds before they look to bounce back against the South Australian Scorpions at Cricket ACT's Phillip Oval base on Sunday.

"The group is bitterly disappointed, we wanted to win and we should have won that game," Dean said.

"At the end of the day we were in a position where we should have won that game, which is really positive. We were close, we just missed a few moments which could have really turned it in our favour.

"A couple more wickets early or probably three overs in our bowling innings that went for 20 and 15, if we tighten up there we're chasing less.

"If a person in our top order scores a big 50 or 100, we're right in that game. Spirits are high, it's onto SA now. We'll park today, reflect on it and look to get better."

AT A GLANCE

WNCL: TASMANIAN TIGERS 9-227 (Nicola Carey 105, Corinne Hall 38; Amy Yates 2-32, Maddie Penna 2-41) bt ACT METEORS 207 (Erin Osborne, Maddie Penna 41; Nicola Carey 3-39, Amy Smith 2-27) by 20 runs at Phillip Oval.