World News – AU – WBBL Wrap: Sixers stumble, Scorchers fire while Heat qualifies

Sophie Devine starred on her return from injury when a shock loss for the Sydney Sixers helped the Brisbane Heat secure a spot in the finals

The match-ups for the Rebel WBBL | 06 finals could be decided by Net Run Rate on the last day of the regular season, with three teams battling for the remaining two spots in the top four.

On Saturday, the Strikers, along with the Renegades and Hurricanes, were eliminated from the race for the final, while the Melbourne Stars had already secured first place.

The Sydney Sixers’ shock loss to the Renegades was a hammer blow to their chances, while it also guaranteed the Brisbane Heat a place in the finals.

This means that the Perth Scorchers, Sydney Thunder (both with 14 points) and Sixers (12 points) must win their games on Sunday to achieve a top 4 result.

The Sixers have everything to do; You have to beat the leading stars of the ladder, hope that one of the Scorchers or Thunder will lose, and also overcome a significant deficit in net run rate to get into the top four.

The Sydney Sixers’ hopes for the final were all but dashed by a shocking six-wicket loss to the Melbourne Renegades at the North Sydney Oval.

It took the Sixers a win over the Renegades to join third and fourth placed Perth Scorchers and Sydney Thunder with 14 points for the final day of the regular season.

They are now faced with the incredibly unlikely task of scoring a huge net run rate-increasing win over the top Melbourne stars on Sunday as they hope either the Thunder or the Scorchers will suffer a heavy loss.

After Alyssa Healy’s brilliant 38-ball 63 set the Renegades a hefty 167 target, Lizelle Lee rediscovered her best, crushing 79 out of 44 deliveries.

Lee was dropped by Jodie Hicks at the opening of the Renegades’ chase and made the Sixers pay, reaching her half-century from 32 shipments.

The Sixers left a bowler shortly after an « administrative error » and saw that Hayley Silver-Holmes was unable to take the field. They struggled to find a way to stop the aggressive South African, who hit the ropes nine times and vacated it four times.

Her attack finally ended when she broke away from Sarah Aley’s bowling and took 24 balls out of 25 for the Renegades.

Courtney Webb (45 of 27) also benefited from multiple lives – including an extraordinary mishap in which Ellyse Perry and Dane van Niekerk collided – and made the Sixers pay, along with Carly Leeson (13 of 11), to the Renegades to steer ‘home with five balls to save.

Previously, Healy had made sure the Sixers got a flyer and did their aggressive best to get their team 0-51 at the end of the power play.

It sped from just 29 deliveries to half a century, hitting six fours and four highs. In partnership with Perry, the Sixers were 0-88 in the middle of their innings.

Molly Strano finally secured her first breakthrough in 13. Game after Healy blunted before Perry fell from 38 to 37 when Webb clung to an absolute screamer.

After falling, Erin Burns (19 of 11) and Marizanne Kapp (22 of 17) let the scoreboard continue, bringing the Sixers to 4-166.

Sophie Devine has come back devastatingly from a back injury and has beaten an unbeaten 87 to lead the Perth Scorchers to a 10-wicket win over the Hobart Hurricanes.

Devine and opening partner Beth Mooney knew that net run rate would be critical in the battle for the finals. They threw everything on their chase and hit their target of 135 with 32 balls.

While Devine wasn’t rolling, she showed no sign of being hampered by the lower back discomfort that excluded her from the Scorchers’ losses during the week, hitting eight fours and five sixs in her 87s on 53 deliveries.

Mooney didn’t settle for just watching the Devine show from the other end, but hit a quick, unbeaten 48 of the 36 balls she faced, making it the first ever player to make a career of 3000 -WBBL has passed.

Previously, a miserable performance by Taneale Peschel and some outstanding effort on the field helped the Scorchers keep hurricanes down to 6-134.

Out of the race for the finals, Hobart experimented with a new opening partnership when Nicola Carey joined Rachel Priest at the helm, replacing an unusual Naomi Stalenberg.

Priest (8) fell victim to Peschel in the second run by a diving catch from Chloe Piparo, before captain Corinne Hall (11) became the second wicket in the power play, which was caught by Nicole Bolton.

Carey’s impressive 31-ball 36 ended with a sharp catch behind Mooney’s stumps before Sarah Glenn showed off two brilliant pieces.

First, she took an excellent dive catch on the back square leg to remove the dangerous Chloe Tryon, whose rise didn’t pay off when she worked on a 22-ball 13 before the English leg spinner got a direct hit on her own bowling, to catch Stalenberg (9) just before her crease.

Emma Flint’s aggressive 33 of 22 helped the Hurricanes make it 6-134, but with Devine and Mooney in full flow it was nowhere near enough.

Sydney Thunder kept his hopes for the semi-finals up and ended the Adelaide Strikers’ season with a narrow final-over win at Drummoyne Oval.

After Sammy-Jo Johnson’s 3:25 kept the Strikers at 6:133, opener Rachel Trenaman laid the foundation for the pursuit with 38 balls out of 40.

One step towards the mighty Johnson No.. 1 to collect. 3, made on the Thunder to improve her net run rate in a tight battle for the top 4, didn’t pay off as she was brilliantly caught on the square leg for seven by a diving Maddie Penna.

Captain Rachael Haynes seemed immobile as she crossed four lines to bring her team closer to a pivotal victory, only to be jaded with eight out of eight deliveries from Amanda-Jade Wellington’s bowling.

But Thunder Young Guns Phoebe Litchfield (16) and Tahlia Wilson (5) kept their nerves and saw their team at home with two balls and five wickets in hand.

It put the Thunder in third place with 14 points, and one more game against the Hurricanes remained on Sunday.

Johnson hit the first blow for Thunder, removing Adelaide opener Tahlia McGrath for 12 before Shabnim Ismail picked up South African star Laura Wolvaardt’s coveted scalp for eight.

West Indian all-rounder Stafanie Taylor joined Mack in a crucial 71-run stand, but after running out on 33 and Mack departing shortly after reaching fifty, the Strikers innings stalled.

Brisbane Heat has moved closer to their place in the Rebel WBBL Finals, taking a thrilling three-wicket win over the Melbourne Stars’ ladder.

Set 152 for the win, key contributions from Captain Jess Jonassen (35 of 19), Georgia Redmayne (37 of 32) and Georgia Voll (34 of 28) put the heat on the line before Laura Kimmince (19 of 5) ) the win iced over with four balls, two boundaries, and an enormous six.

After Grace Harris was knocked out in the third game around eight, Jonassen scored her best stroke of the season, hitting seven limits before getting stuck with the introduction of leg spinner Alana King.

Voll joined opener Redmayne to bet 44 for the third wicket. The pair put the required run rate on a ball before Redmayne was brilliantly run out of a direct hit by Katherine Brunt, who collected and pulled a shot from her own bowling alley.

Full of composure contradicted her for 17 years when she found the boundary four times and erased it once before Tess Flintoff struck to keep the stars on the hunt.

Kimmince, the hero of the Heat’s recent success, hit a massive six from the last ball of the 18th. over to leave 10 of the last two overs.

Tess Flintoff’s neat 19th. passed two wickets and only licked two runs, but Kimmince iced the win in style with consecutive limits.

Previously, Mignon du Preez’s fourth half century had brought the Stars to 5-151 from their last five innings.

Meg Lanning entered the match with an average of 82. So it was no surprise that a lit Delissa Kimmince celebrated wildly when she caught the Stars captain for a duck with a second ball in the canyon.

Stopping the sculpted South African batsman Mignon du Preez (51 of 38) presented an entirely different problem for the heat. However, he hit eight fours and a six to make fifty of 36 deliveries before spinner Charli Knott finally got the key to wicket two balls later.

Natalie Sciver (33 of 28) let the scoreboard tick amid economic ads from Amelia Kerr (1-23) and Grace Harris (2-8) before Alana King (17 of 9) and Katherine Brunt (16 of 11) ) ensured the late recovery.

Women’s Big Bash League, Melbourne Stars (WBBL), Brisbane Heat (WBBL), Perth Scorchers Women, Sydney Sixers (WBBL), Cricket, Sydney Thunder (WBBL), Melbourne Renegades