WBBL11 – aspiblog

How WBBL11 Was Won

A look back at today’s WBBL11 final, between Perth Scorchers and Hobart Hurricanes, and a photo gallery.

This morning (UK time) saw the final of the Women’s Big Bash League 11th edition. The contending sides were Hobart Hurricanes, who had won the league stage and thus gone straight into the final and Perth Scorchers who had had to win two extra matches in order to get there. The other benefit besides going straight through to the final that the Hurricanes got was that the match was played in Hobart.

THE PRELIMINARIES

The bat flip was won by Perth Scorchers. Sophie Devine chose to bat first, believing that runs on the board would give her side the opportunity to impose scoreboard pressure on the opposition. Both sides were unchanged from their previous matches (in Hurricanes’ case quite a while back, and it was one that was only half finished in bizarre circumstances – in the break between innings a ball got rolled into the pitch surface creating a dangerously large hole therein and resulting in an abandonment).

THE SCORCHERS INNINGS

Katie Mack and Beth Mooney have been a formidable opening pair for the Scorchers this season, but neither were at their best today. Mack in particular struggled to get going, and Mooney did so only because she was reprieved multiple times. Finally in the sixth a cover a catch did go to hand, Linsey Smith pouching one off Lauren Smith to send Mack back for 17 and make it 36-1. Maddy Darke, in at number three for the Scorchers never got going at all, and it was Linsey Smith as bowler who got her, with the aid of a catch by Natalie Sciver-Brunt, to make it 48-2 in the eighth over. The innings was just into its second half when Heather Graham rattled Mooney’s stumps, getting the left hander for 33 and making it 64-3. Freya Kemp hit a six, but then gave Sciver-Brunt a catch off Linsey Smith to go for 10 and make it 79-4 in the 13th over. Paige Scholfield batted well, but the last serious hope of a big Scorchers total disappeared when Lizelle Lee stumped Devine off Graham to make it 112-5 in the 17th over. Scholfield and Alana King stayed together for the rest of the innings. The most remarkable happening was Nicola Carey contriving to concede just three runs in the final over of the innings, two of them off the final ball. Carey had figures overall of 4-0-23-0, and two of those overs were in the opening Power Play, and another was that 20th over. The final score was 137-5, which did not look like enough, although if Hurricanes had taken all the chances they were offered Scorchers would probably have been all out for about 90.

THE HURRICANES CHASE

Lizelle Lee struck form from the outset. The four over opening Power Play yielded 39-0. In the sixth over Amy Edgar clean bowled Danni Wyatt-Hodge for 16 to make it 49-1. That brought Sciver-Brunt in to join Lee, and the pair made hay. At the halfway stage the score was 81-1. Hurricanes activated the Power Surge at the first permitted opportunity, namely for overs 11 and 12, quite rightly going for the quick kill (and even without that motivation, would they ever have a better time to take it than with Lizelle Lee and Natalie Sciver-Brunt both well set?) rather than waiting on further developments. Lee hit the fourth ball of the 11th over for a six, the third such blow of her innings, to pass 50 off 32 balls, and followed up by hitting four more off the fifth and another half dozen off the sixth. Sciver-Brunt joined the party by putting the first ball of the 12th over into the stands. In total the two overs of Power Surge produced 31-0, , and Hurricanes were 112-1 after 12 overs, needing a mere 26 off the last eight. Sciver-Brunt fell with victory in sight, but Lee went to a new record score for a WBBL final of 77 not out (44 balls, 10 fours, four sixes), while Nicola Carey made the winning hit, a four off the final ball of the 15th over. The margin was eight wickets, with five overs to spare. Lizelle Lee after that stunning blitz with the bat was named Player of the Match. This means that the Hurricanes currently hold both the men’s and women’s BBL titles, and that the only franchise never to have won a WBBL title is now the Melbourne Stars.

ON POWER SURGES

The Power Surge can be activated at any stage in the last ten overs of an innings. In this match it was one of many areas in which Hurricanes were superb. Scorchers by contrast took their surge for overs 15 and 16, and amassed 15-0 from those two overs, little if any better than they would have done in regular play. It is that last point, that the key is not just how many runs those overs yield, but how many more they yield than would have been scored anyway that informs my thinking on this subject. Taking it for overs 15 and 16 as Scorchers did today makes some sort of sense, effectively extending ‘the death’ from four overs to six. Leaving it any later would to me rank as folly. The Hurricanes had an easy choice today, as they had two well set batters both ideally suited to making use of a Power Surge when they took it. In general I think sides, influenced by the worry that taking it can lead to the loss of wickets are overcautious about doing so and tend it leave it later than they should.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This picture and the next show mute swans demonstrating that their huge size does not prevent them getting airborne.

Hapless Heat Remain Winless

A look back at today’s WBBL clash in Drummoyne between Sydney Thunder and Brisbane Heat, a note about future posts and a photo gallery.

Today in the Women’s Big Bash League Sydney Thunder were hosting Brisbane Heat at Drummoyne. Neither side could qualify, but a win for Thunder if they managed it would condemn Heat to the wooden spoon (even if Heat had won they would need another win in their final game, another loss for Thunder and a substantial change in net run rates to avoid this fate).

THE THUNDER INNINGS

Thunder, batting first, had a slow start, and were 24-1 after their four over Power Play. That took a turn for the worse in the fifth over when English leg spinner Sarah Glenn making her debut for Heat struck twice in successive balls, bowling Voll with a ball that went straight through, and then bowling Knight round her legs with the next ball. Anika Learoyd and young all rounder Lucy Finn both also fell for single figure scores, and when veteran Laura Harris was LBW for 13 it was 93-6. Phoebe Litchfield, who had survived this carnage, had been dropped twice in the early stages of her innings, and these lapses would prove crucial, as she now found an excellent partner in Em Arlott. At 120 Litchfield’s innings ended for 61, but now, having played the support role for Litchfield, Arlott took control, in a partnership with Taneale Peschel that yielded a further 33 runs off the last 3.5 overs of the innings. Thunder thus had 153 to defend.

THE HEAT RESPONSE

The Heat innings began with Samantha Bates bowling to Charli Knott. The first three balls were all dots, and then Bates took a magnificent return catch to get Knott off the fourth ball. Lauren Winfield-Hill came in at number three, but never got going at all, and the fourth ball of the third over, bowled by Voll, pinned her LBW for 2 (5). In the next over Georgia Redmayne, batting at number four, was caught behind of Shabnim Ismail for 1. At the end of the four over opening Power Play the Heat were 10-3 and the game was effectively done. When Lucinda Bourke had reached 18 she fell to a catch by Voll off Peschel to make it 30-4. West Indian all rounder Chinelle Henry now joined Sianna Ginger, and they fared well for a time, until Henry was hit and retired hurt with the score at 53. Ten runs later Ginger who had scored an impressive 28 was caught and bowled by Arlott. The sixth wicket pair of Annie O’Neil and Mikayla Wrigley more than doubled that total, but were never on terms with the runs rate, and Thunder ran out winners by 23 runs in the end. Heat thus remain winless after nine games, and also remain without an individual 50+ score in this year’s tournament (Litchfield’s innings today was the fifth such score for the Thunder by comparison).

PHOTOGRAPHS

Just before the main purpose of this section a note for the future: I intend to write about yesterday’s auction on Friday – one of two posts I intend to write that day, with the other being about what is happening in the second Ashes test in Brisbane (in over 2,600 test matches to date there has never been a definite result in one day’s play, though MCC v Australia at Lord’s in 1878 was done and dusted in a day – MCC 33 and 19, Australia 41 and 12-1 won by nine wickets – and I do not see this one being done in a day either, even with Stokes’ England being involved!). Now it is time for my usual sign off…

Last night’s moon was approaching fullness…

Hurricanes Boss WBBL Summit Meeting

A look at the extraordinary events that took place in Hobart earlier today UK time and a photo gallery.

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

My usual sign off…

This is an edit of yesterday’s feature image, with the colour reduced.

Marizanne’s Masterclass

A look back at today’s WBBL match between Brisbane Heat and Melbourne Stars, and a photo gallery.

Today in the Women’s Big Bash League Brisbane Heat played host to Melbourne Stars at Allan Border Field in a game that had been scheduled as late-night fixture (coverage starting at 9AM UK time) because it was seen as being a kind of ‘dessert’ after the main meal of day three of the test match at Perth. However, some Kamikaze batting by England and a great innings from Travis Head (go here for more) meant that there was in point of fact no day three in Perth, so this match became the main event.

THE STARS INNINGS

Melbourne Stars won the bat flip and opted to bat first. Brisbane Heat’s captain Jess Jonassen was not unhappy about this. Heat had lost all four of their games this edition, so desperately needed a win. At first they looked absolutely certain to get that win, as they tore through the Stars top and middle order, reducing the visitor’s to 44-6 at one point. At that stage South African veteran Marizanne Kapp was joined in the middle by young English bowling all rounder Danielle Gibson. They launched a spirited revival, putting on 73 together, of which Gibson’s share was precisely 30, from 24 balls, ending when Nadine de Klerk trapped her LBW. Georgia Prestwidge scored 3 (7), but such was the devastating fusillade from Kapp at the other end that the eighth wicket stand yielded 43 in 2.5 overs! This briefly opened the possibility of a Kapp century, but even batting as she was by then time was against her, the final over being already underway. In the end she finished with 93 not out from 51 balls, including nine fours and five sixes, in a Stars total of 171-8.

THE HEAT REPLY

Heat started far better than Stars had, with Grace Harris and Charli Knott putting on 50 for the first wicket, a stand that ended when Sophie Day pinned Harris LBW. Jess Jonassen now promoted herself to number three, when Georgia Redmayne would probably have been a better choice there. In the eighth over Kapp’s medium pace provided the second breakthrough, Harris being caught by Danielle Gibson to make it 56-2. Chinelle Henry looked dangerous, smashing two sixes in the space of three balls in the ninth over, but off the last ball, immediately after hitting the second of those sixes, she went big again and was superbly caught by Kapp for 13 (8) to make it 74-3. Jonassen never really looked like justifying her decision to bat at number three, and in the 12th over she was caught in the deep by Georgia Prestwidge off Day for 15 (14)to make it 92-4. Four balls and three runs later Nadine de Klerk took on McKenna and Prestwidge again got underneath it to make it 95-5. Georgia Redmayne and Lauren Winfield-Hill shared a decent partnership, but they were never up with the rate, and Redmayne’s dismissal left Heat needing 40 runs to win off just 3.1 overs. They never got remotely close, and it was only a four hit by young fast bowler Lucy Hamilton off the final ball of the match with the result long since settled that even enabled Heat to top the 150 mark. The final margin was 18 runs. Marizanne Kapp with that thunderous 93 not out, 4-0-31-2 with the ball and a superb catch was the only possible candidate for Player of the Match, and was duly so named. The Stars now sit third in the table, while Heat, after seven successive seasons of making the knockouts now know that they will not be extending their season this time.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

I rarely photograph pigeons but I thought this one with the distinctive green neck patch was worth making an exception for.

Thunder v Scorchers

A look at Sydney Thunder v Perth Scorchers in the WBBL and a lot of photos.

Today’s match in the Women’s Big Bash League saw Sydney Thunder hosting Perth Scorchers. The home side had been consistent in the wrong way, losing three out of three, while the visitors had been inconsistent. This post looks back at the match.

THE SCORCHERS INNINGS

Sydney Thunder won the toss and opted to bowl first. The first two overs were economical, but then Georgia Voll was entrusted with the third and Katie Mack hit the first three balls of the over for fours. By the end of their four over opening Power Play the Scorchers were 26-0, a modest tally in spite of Voll’s expensive over. The key reason for this was left arm spinner Samantha Bates, who bowled two of those four overs and conceded a mere eight runs. Katie Mack was in splendid form, while Beth Mooney hung in there. The first ball of the eighth over saw the 50 come up, and a strong finish to the first half of the innings saw the Scorchers go to drinks on 76-0 from 10 overs. The drinks break, as it quite often does, brought the wicket, Mooney falling immediately on the resumption. The young English left hander Freya Kemp came in at three and was briefly impressive before a run out ended her stay at the crease for 11 (6) to make it 90-2. Another Englishwoman, Paige Scholfield, followed Kemp to the crease, and hit her first ball for four, before being pinned LBW by her second and burning up a review in an attempt to overturn it. The great Kiwi veteran Sophie Devine was next and on this occasion failed to make it 98-4. With wickets tumbling the Scorchers delayed to Power Surge until overs 16 and 17. Samantha Bates, having already bowled two of her overs in the opening Power Play, now bowled her fourth and final over in what was both a Power Surge over and a death over. She did so superbly, and emerged with figures of 4-0-18-1, with three of those four overs bowled in the toughest periods of the innings. Scorchers just brought up the 150 before the end of their innings, the last ball of which saw the dismissal of Mack, who had batted on a different plane from most of her team mates, scoring 79 off 57 balls in all.

THE THUNDER REPLY

Although Sixers had very comfortably defended a smaller total than Scorchers’ 150 on this same ground a few days earlier there was still a suspicion that the Perth side had not done enough in their innings.

By the end of the opening Power Play that impression was reinforced as Thunder were 36-0 at that point, ten runs better than Scorchers had been. By the halfway stage Thunder had reached 80-1, only four runs better and one wicket worse than Scorchers. However, while Scorchers had struggled in the second half of their innings Thunder did not. At the 15 over stage it was 114-1, 37 needed off the last five overs with nine wickets standing, and now Phoebe Litchfield stepped on the gas for Thunder. No further wickets were taken, and it was Litchfield who ended proceedings by hitting the second ball of the 19th over for the only six of the match, a shot that took her to 50* (35), while at the other end Tahlia Wilson was 55* (44), with Georgia Voll having redeemed her poor bowling by contributing 43 from 31 balls at the top of the order. The only remaining question was Player of the Match. I regard the actual choice of Wilson as a clear-cut mistake – she scored at slower than the required rate, meaning that her team mates needed to do more than she was, which they managed easily enough. I would have been happy enough had it gone to Litchfield, whose late acceleration sealed the deal, but my own choice would have Bates for her bowling performance, which played a huge part in limiting the Scorchers to that 150 – her team mates conceded an average 8.25 from each of the 16 overs they bowlers, while she went for 18 from four, an ER of 4.50, and she bowled three of those four overs at tough stages of the innings. Had she matched the ER of her team mates, which would still have made it a good effort given when she bowled Scorchers would have had 165 to defend rather than 150, and those extra 15 runs may well have been enough.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Brilliant Bray Bosses Sydney Smash

A look back at today’s ‘Sydney Smash’ – Thunder v Sixers – in the WBBL, including a historic performance from Caoimhe Bray and a photo gallery featuring pictures taken with three cameras.

Today in the Women’s Big Bash League saw the Sydney Smash – Thunder hosting Sixers at Drummoyne, just west of Sydney. This post looks back at a bizarre game that ended up being dominated by the youngest player involved.

SIXERS SLUMP AFTER STRONG START

Sydney Thunder skipper Phoebe Litchfield won the toss and chose to bowl first, a decision that her cross-city counterpart Ashleigh Gardner would also have made had she been the one to win the toss. Each side had a youngster in the ranks, Thunder giving a debut to 18 year old all rounder Lucy Finn, while Sixers had 16 year old bowling all rounder Caiomhe Bray (that given name is pronounced like ‘Keeva’ just for the record).

Ellyse Perry was out fairly early, pinned LBW by Georgia Voll with just 16 on the board. Thereafter, with Sophia Dunkley in prime form, and Alyssa Healy taking full toll of a few loose balls things initially looked bright for the Sixers. Their innings took a dramatic turn when Healy tried to go after one from Shabnim Ismail and succeeded only in picking out Samantha Bates who made no mistake with the catch. That was 76-2, and off the last ball of the tenth over Dunkley fell for 43, pinned LBW by Sri Lankan veteran Chamari Athapaththu to make it 80-3 at the halfway stage of the innings. In the second half of the Sixers innings wickets tumbled regularly, with the shining exception of English spin bowling all rounder Mady Villiers who emerged as third top scorer of the innings, with an unbeaten 24. A final total of 142-9 looked on the meagre side, especially from that high water mark of 76-1 after 8.4 overs…

THUNDER TUMBLE

…Sixers needed to start well, and veteran seamer Lauren Cheatle struck with the fourth ball of the Thunder innings, having Voll caught by Villiers to make it 2-1. Then the other new ball bowler, Maitlan Brown, struck twice more, first accepting a soft return chance to dismiss the other opener Tahlia Wilson for 7, and then having the vastly experienced Heather Knight feather one through to Healy for 6 to make it 19-3 in the fourth over. Neither Phoebe Litchfield nor Anika Learoyd played fluently, but they held the fort together until the last ball of the seventh over, bowled by the youngster Bray. Litchfield, who had reached 8 from 14 balls tried to attack against Bray and succeeded in being caught by Gardner to make it 33-4. The next over yielded nine runs, before it was back to Bray, and the biggest events of the night. The first ball of the ninth over did for Learoyd, bowling her for 11 to make it 42-5. That brought the explosive Laura Harris to the crease. Harris tried to do her thing off her first ball and was brilliantly caught by a diving Erin Burns for 0 to give the 16 year old Bray a hat trick comprising three front line batters, some 175 years after All-England skipper Heathfield Harman Stephenson caused the term to be coined by dismissing three batters with successive balls in a match in Sheffield, which led to the crowd, impressed by the performance, to pass round a hat for a collection and present both hat and contents to Stephenson. Incidentally, though this match was flawless in this regard this edition of the WBBL had not overall been notable for catches being held. That was 42-6, and Lucy Finn came to the crease. Four balls into the second half of the innings Athapaththu holed out to Gardner to give Bray her fourth scalp of the innings and make it 49-3, the Sri Lankan managing only 3 (6). Bray had two balls of her allocation left to make it a five-for, but was not able to do so. However, her final 4-0-15-4 including the hat trick had settled who would be named Player of the Match. Thunder’s own youngster, Finn, now took centre stage, as she, with good support from tail enders Taneale Peschel and Shabnim Ismail (number 11 Samantha Bates not being required in the end) proceeded to produce an innings that exposed just how badly her supposed betters had handled their duties. She just missed on reaching 50, but her 49 not out, in the course of which she never looked in any trouble was the highest score of the match on either side – quite something for a debutant who came into the match considered more of a bowler than a batter (and though, like all else, it was overshadowed by Bray’s performance 3-0-27-1 on professional T20 debut is no one’s idea of a failure). Thunder with this late revival reached 118-8, beaten by 24 runs.

PHOTOGRAPHS

This gallery features images taken with three cameras – the Nikon Coolpix B500 that was my first choice camera until it died on Tuesday morning, the Canon EOS 4000D that is my reserve camera, and the Panasonic DC-FZ82D which I ordered on Wednesday and arrived yesterday and is now my new first choice camera…

This gallery consists of the last pictures with the Nikon.

The pictures in this gallery were taken with the Canon…

Sixers Smash Scorchers

A look at Perth Scorchers v Sydney Sixers in WBBL11 and a photo gallery.

The 11th edition of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) is now under way. Today there was live commentary on game three, between Perth Scorchers and Sydney Sixers at the WACA. This post looks back at the match.

THE SCORCHERS INNINGS

Perth Scorchers won the toss and chose to bat. They started reasonably well, being 27-1 after four overs, and 37-1 after 4.3 overs. The fourth ball of that over saw the end of Beth Mooney just as she was starting to look really dangerous. From that point the game changed, as Sixers applied considerable pressure. First there was a period of 2.3 overs immediately after the dismissal in which a mere seven runs were scored, and then came catastrophe for the Scorchers. First Sophie Devine suffered a barely credible dismissal, officially stumped by Emma Manix-Geeves off Ash Gardner, when a) the ball hit the stumps by way of the keeper rather than due to any good work on her part and b) the wicket keeper gloved the stumps herself without possession of the ball, but the ball had hit the stumps before her gloves did. That eventually brought Paige Scholfield to the crease, she immediately hit her first ball straight back to Gardner to make it 44-4. Freya Kemp now came in, and in company with Mikayala Hinkley seemed to be steadying the ship. Then Hinkley, who had made her to 31, was well caught by Coimhe Bray off Ellyse Perry (a transgenerational dismissal, Perry being 35 and Bray 16) to make it 83-5, which became 83-6 when DRS confirmed that Chloe Ainsworth’s pad was indeed in front of the stumps when her first ball thumped into it. Five balls later Freya Kemp became the third player dismissed with the score on 83 when Gardner bowled her for 16 with a peach of a yorker. That left Lilly Mills and Alana King together at the crease. Mills batted busily and effectively for a time, until Gardner struck yet again. First Mills was caught behind for 13, and then after Amy Edgar had scored a single off the next ball Alana King fell to a return catch for 5 to make it 102-9 and give Gardner her fifth wicket of the innings. The over ended without further incident, but Gardner, captaining the Sixers for the first tine, had recorded figures of 4-0-15-5, the best ever for the Sydney Sixers. Edgar and number 11 Ebony Hoskin did manage to take the Scorchers innings into the final over, before a second fine catch of the innings by Bray accounted for Edgar to make it 109 all out. On this occasion Bray’s seamers were surplus to requirement, but she had been worth her place purely as a fielder.

THE SIXERS INNINGS

A total of 109 was miles short of anything remotely defensible on a good surface (which this was), and an upset never looked likely. Sixers opening pair of Ellyse Perry and Sophia Dunkley made an easy task look quite ridiculously so. It took the pair a mere 12.5 overs to take their side to a ten wicket victory. Dunkley scored 61 not out from 40 balls with five sixes and four fours and Perry had 57 not out from 37 balls with nine fours. It remained only for Gardner, skipper and record breaking bowler for the Sixers, to be named Player of the Match as she duly was.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

	The First Two Days i… on A Successful Auction
	Marizanne’s Mastercl… on From Victory to Rout in Two…
	From Victory to Rout… on An Extraordinary Opening …
	amsutcliffebtinterne… on Thunder v Scorchers
	Thunder v Scorchers… on Brilliant Bray Bosses Sydney…