Brisbane heat 134 for 6 (Knott 44*) bat Adelaide Strikers 133 for 5 (McGrath 51*) for four wickets
The Brisbane Heat got a little revenge for their loss in last season’s WBBL final by disposing of the defending champions Adelaide Strikers by four wickets in the season opener. Restricting the Strikers to 133 for 5, Charli Knott controlled the chase with a blistering 44 off 30 balls despite a wobble when Megan Schutt took two wickets in three balls.
Grace Harris set the stage for the chase before falling to a superb catch and throw by Jemma Barsby. By the time Lauren Winfield-Hill was bowled by Orla Prendergast, which gave Ireland their first wicket in the first innings, the Strikers were back in the game but when Anesu Mushangwe hit his first delivery – again caught until the 16th over – the game. all done despite Schutt’s intervention.
The batsmen struggled to gain momentum with the bat: after the power play they were 39 for 1 (despite the fourth over, bowled by Sianna Ginger, worth 20) and at the half-way mark 59 for 2. Laura Wolvaardt was given life at 0 when Grace Harris squandered an opportunity at mid off 1 but could not capitalize as she drove Shikha Pandey to mid off where Jess Jonassen held on with a juggle.
Katie Mack and Tahlia McGrath upped the tempo with a third-wicket stand of 53 off 41 balls but the middle order couldn’t get going from 14 to 17 overs conceding just 14 runs. McGrath, who has struggled in T20s this year, brought up a 40-ball half-century. Pandey and Jonassen were outstanding with the ball as their eight overs combined yielded 3 for 30 with 25 dot balls.
Sydney Sixers 179 for 7 (Perry 81, Bryce 36*, Wareham 3-26) beat Melbourne Renegades 178 for 8 (Wareham 61, Webb 43, Perry 2-25, Sippel 2-33) for three wickets
Ellyse Perry scored for Georgia Wareham in a battle of two best tries in game two as the Sydney Sixers kicked off their new WBBL season with two points. They comfortably chased down the target of 179 set by Melbourne Renegades, with Perry leading the way with 81 in just 38 overs.
With 11 fours, three sixes and a strike-rate of 213, opener Perry helped the Sixers post 121 runs for no target in 12 overs. When he fell to Wareham in the early 13th over, Sara Bryce’s unbeaten 25-ball 36 took the Sixers home. Caoimhe Bray – 15 years, 34 days – started the day as the WBBL’s youngest ever cricketer, and finished it off with his 12th cameo from five balls which included the winning runs in the 19th over. Wareham went down on the losing side but had match-best figures of 3 for 26 in three overs.
Wareham was equally impressive with the bat. Although the Renegades’ 178 for 8 proved insufficient, it was Wareham’s 31-61 with a strike rate of 197 that put the Sixers in the chase at nearly nine runs per over.
He came in when Deandra Dottin was dismissed by Bray in the ninth over, and only fell on the last ball of the 20th over. Before she was dismissed, she hit Sophie Ecclestone for four, six, six in the last over to raise the team’s total. Her innings was matched by opener Courtney Webb’s 43, but Emma de Broughe (19), Dottin (15) and captain Sophie Molineux (17) failed to capitalize on their debuts, which proved to be a call to bat. well.
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