Today’s Women’s Big Bash League match was at the Bellerive Oval where Hobart Hurricanes, top of the table, took on second place Melbourne Stars. This post looks back at a remarkable match.
THE HURRICANES INNINGS
Melbourne Stars won the toss and opted to field. After three overs Hurricanes were 16-0. The first big turning point in the game was the fourth over, bowled by Kim Garth. The normally reliable Irish born seamer had an absolute nightmare over, conceding 23, including two lots of five wides. Hurricanes were off and running, and not even a rain interruption midway through the sixth over of their innings which lasted long enough to reduce the match to 17 overs per side could slow their momentum. Danni Wyatt-Hodge blossomed from a slow start into a majestic innings, eventually scoring 71 (47). There were also useful contributions from Lizelle Lee, Natalie Sciver-Brunt and Elyse Villani, and the Hurricanes ended with 176-4 from their 17 overs, which became a DLS adjusted target of 180 for The Stars.
THE STARS RESPONSE
Nicola Carey had Rhys McKenna adjudged LBW twice in the course of the second over, the first one overturned on review, the second so plumb that McKenna did not send it upstairs. That was as nothing compared to the third over, when Meg Lanning hit Linsey Smith for six, but the English left arm spinner hit back instantly by bowling her with the very next ball. Nicola Carey consolidated this excellent start by bowling a very tight fourth over of the innings – just two singles from it, as opposed to the 23 leaked by Garth in the equivalent over of the Hurricanes innings. In the fifth over came another boundary/ wicket combination, Sutherland hitting a four off Linsey Smith to move into double figures before giving Lauren Smith a catch off her near namesake one ball later. That was 29-3. Amy Jones threatened briefly, and greeted the arrival of veteran off spinner Molly Strano for the seventh over by hitting a four off the first ball. Then, for the third time in the innings a boundary was instantly followed by a wicket, this time due more to a superb catch by Wyatt-Hodge than to any special merit in the ball from Strano. Stars 49-4, Jones out for 19, and it was about to get rapidly worse for them as well. Danielle Gibson got off the mark with single from the third ball of the over, and then Marizanne Kapp edged the fourth through to her compatriot Lee to make it 50-5. Kim Garth managed a single off the fifth ball of the over, and then Danielle Gibson gave Lauren Smith her second catch of the innings to make it a barely credible 51-6 after seven overs, Strano a ridiculous 1-0-6-3. The eighth over was a quiet one, and then it was time for Strano again. Incredibly, having struck with her 2nd, 4th and 6th balls she did so again with her eighth, Kim Garth giving Wyatt-Hodge her second catch of the innings to make it 54-7. In the tenth over a mix-up between Sasha Moloney and Georgia Prestwidge saw the latter run out by a combination of Linsey Smith and the bowler Hayley Silver-Holmes which made it 61-8. Now came Melbourne Stars least bad period of this innings, as Sasha Moloney, generally regarded as something of a makeweight, proceeded to demonstrate just how badly her more illustrious team mates had batted. Without ever seeming in much trouble Moloney made her way to 31 from 24 balls, and innings ended by Wyatt-Hodge;s third catch of the night, and Molly Strano’s fifth wicket thereof. That was 94-9. The fifth ball of the 16th over ended the match, Maisy Gibson sending it into the air. It was Rachel Trenaman, whose name no one had cause to mention at any other stage of the match, who got herself under it and pouched the catch to give Lauren Smith a wicket. Melbourne Stars were all out for 98 and had lost by 81 runs on the DLS method. Wyatt-Hodge with three catches, one of them an absolute screamer, to set alongside her majestic 71 was a deserving Player of the Match, though five-fors are very rare birds in this format, so Strano deserves some sympathy, and Linsey Smith’s early strikes, accounting for Lanning and Sutherland, two authentic greats, played a huge role in rattling the Stars. Hobart Hurricanes are now three points clear at the top of the table with 14 points to Stars 11, though the latter have two matches left in the group stage, while Hurricanes have only one.
PHOTOGRAPHS
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