WBBL|03 (Women's Big Bash League 2017-18)

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Two tied matches in two days, this time in Wagga Wagga as Adelaide's Sophie Devine restricted the Thunder to 4 runs in the 20th. She then backed it up in the Super Over by conceding six with the ball and then getting all but 1 of the runs needed off her own bat to win it for the Strikers (captain Suzie Bates getting the other).

That result keeps the Sydney Sixers on top, at least for now, as they were able to chase down the Stars' 106 with two overs remaining. Their season is about to get very interesting as their two South African players--Kapp and van Niekerk, who have both had very good tournaments--are departing for national duties.

Meanwhile the Scorchers have got another should-and-must-win encounter with the Hurricanes under way. If a spot in the finals isn't enough incentive, how about a fourth place home final at Optus Stadium? It seems like that's what on offer for them, given the men's Perth team have all but sewn up a top-2 finish. (And fwiw, there's a chance the WBBL Strikers finish third and get a home final, too!)
 
We got the ideal results this afternoon to make the race for the finals as tight as possible. It's all coming down to tomorrow's last three regular season matches.

The Sydney Sixers earned themselves a top-2 spot today on the back of a timely Alyssa Healy return-to-form (106 off 66 balls which included lazy across-the-line shots early on, then exceptionally clean straight striking after one mis-hit cleared the infield when it shouldn't have), joining their lime green crosstown rivals on 9 wins and a guaranteed semi-final. The Adelaide Strikers would probably have to lose badly tomorrow, and have a few other results work against them, to be knocked down from third place.

The next three positions on the ladder is where it's going down to the wire. The winner of the Renegades vs Scorchers encounter will most likely finish in fourth place, but the Brisbane Heat can sneak in ahead of both those teams if they repeat today's performance and defeat the Thunder comfortably enough to significantly boost their net run rate.
 
The Scorchers chased down 112 on Sunday with 4 overs to spare and catapulted themselves into an unexpected third-place on the ladder, with English international Nat Sciver's 39* steering the ship. Now their finals campaign gets underway on Thursday against the Thunder at Perth's Optus Stadium (12.10pm local time). This is a tough one to pick because the Scorchers have everything in their arsenal except perhaps consistency. I don't see quite as many spectacular match-winners on the Thunder's side, but they've had a solid spread of contributors all Bash with the likes of third-drop Naomi Stalenberg and second-change Nicola Carey digging the team out of rare instances of trouble.

Then for the Friday semi-final at Adelaide Oval (2.40pm local time), the first-place Sixers will play the fourth-place Strikers for the third time in seven days. Sport can be a funny thing sometimes, and the mentality of a team going into a match greatly influences performance. I just wonder, with the Sixers winning twice on the weekend, will they now feel more like the hunted than the hunters. The Strikers, through the precise inswing of Megan Schutt and the airy leg-breaks of Amanda-Jade Wellington, were able to limit Ellyse Perry's contribution and still lost on both occasions. They'll probably need to stop the opposition's captain again, while also keeping an eye on young Irish recruit Kim Garth and returnee Sarah Coyte, two energetic fast bowlers seemingly growing in confidence with each delivery.

Both games will be televised on ONE, as far as I can tell. My prediction is that we will get a repeat of WBBL|01 in the form of an all-Sydney final at a neutral venue.

---

I was umm-ing and ahh-ing about when to select my traditional team of the tournament, because a Nicole Bolton or Tahlia McGrath could feasibly squeeze their way in if they add a couple of high-quality finals to their portfolio. Apologies to them if that ends up being the case, because I already went ahead and created the #fanart!

WBBL03_EliteXI_zpsoixqujtj.png

Featuring in this Elite XI (the best Fantastic 4 kind of name I could come up with unfortunately) are plenty of my long-standing favourites, as well as some newcomers. Of the ten or so legitimate bowling options there, only 12th man Osborne sends down your standard offies, while van Niekerk and Sam Bates turn it away from the right-hander. This is quite a shift from last season's squad that had five finger-spinners including Jess Jonassen, Hayley Matthews and Molly Strano (they, like plenty of other candidates such as Stafanie Taylor and Jemma Barsby, had good '17-'18 seasons but didn't dominate throughout).

As usual, most of these players pick themselves on raw numbers. With that said, there were greater run-accumulators than Sophie Devine and more frequent wicket-takers than Marizanne Kapp, but I liked their ability to stand up when close matches were there to be won.

Sophie Molineux probably would've been my pick for Rising Star last season if I considered it, and Annabel Sutherland is eligible next season according to the rules I just made up, hence my endorsement for Brown (bounced back well from last year's injury, and by the way she's not rrrreally from Canberra but I think the value of the ACT Meteors deserves an extra shout out).

Truth be told, I initially included the "From:" location category to underline the global influence on the WBBL, because it's clear that teams without at least two world-class locals and two world-class overseas players (with thorough experience in Australian conditions, importantly) have struggled.

Three franchise captains made it into the Elite XI, and Suzie Bates seems like the most natural. Villani got her sums wrong the other day and was "forced" to bowl herself for the final over (classic park cricket move). And having Perry focus her energy on setting fields and tactics feels like a waste (plus, she always under-utilises herself with the ball). People don't want to see the diplomatic, thoughtful Diana Prince; they want to see the cartwheeling, fly-kicking Wonder Woman!
 
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The Scorchers chased down 112 on Sunday with 4 overs to spare and catapulted themselves into an unexpected third-place on the ladder, with English international Nat Sciver's 39* steering the ship. Now their finals campaign gets underway on Thursday against the Thunder at Perth's Optus Stadium (12.10pm local time). This is a tough one to pick because the Scorchers have everything in their arsenal except perhaps consistency. I don't see quite as many spectacular match-winners on the Thunder's side, but they've had a solid spread of contributors all Bash with the likes of third-drop Naomi Stalenberg and second-change Nicola Carey digging the team out of rare instances of trouble.

Then for the Friday semi-final at Adelaide Oval (2.40pm local time), the first-place Sixers will play the fourth-place Strikers for the third time in seven days. Sport can be a funny thing sometimes, and the mentality of a team going into a match greatly influences performance. I just wonder, with the Sixers winning twice on the weekend, will they now feel more like the hunted than the hunters. The Strikers, through the precise inswing of Megan Schutt and the airy leg-breaks of Amanda-Jade Wellington, were able to limit Ellyse Perry's contribution and still lost on both occasions. They'll probably need to stop the opposition's captain again, while also keeping an eye on young Irish recruit Kim Garth and returnee Sarah Coyte, two energetic fast bowlers seemingly growing in confidence with each delivery.

Both games will be televised on ONE, as far as I can tell. My prediction is that we will get a repeat of WBBL|01 in the form of an all-Sydney final at a neutral venue.

---

I was umm-ing and ahh-ing about when to select my traditional team of the tournament, because a Nicole Bolton or Tahlia McGrath could feasibly squeeze their way in if they add a couple of high-quality finals to their portfolio. Apologies to them if that ends up being the case, because I already went ahead and created the #fanart!

WBBL03_EliteXI_zpsoixqujtj.png

Featuring in this Elite XI (the best Fantastic 4 kind of name I could come up with unfortunately) are plenty of my long-standing favourites, as well as some newcomers. Of the ten or so legitimate bowling options there, only 12th man Osborne sends down your standard offies, while van Niekerk and Sam Bates turn it away from the right-hander. This is quite a shift from last season's squad that had five finger-spinners including Jess Jonassen, Hayley Matthews and Molly Strano (they, like plenty of other candidates such as Stafanie Taylor and Jemma Barsby, had good '17-'18 seasons but didn't dominate throughout).

As usual, most of these players pick themselves on raw numbers. With that said, there were greater run-accumulators than Sophie Devine and more frequent wicket-takers than Marizanne Kapp, but I liked their ability to stand up when close matches were there to be won.

Sophie Molineux probably would've been my pick for Rising Star last season if I considered it, and Annabel Sutherland is eligible next season according to the rules I just made up, hence my endorsement for Brown (bounced back well from last year's injury, and by the way she's not rrrreally from Canberra but I think the value of the ACT Meteors deserves an extra shout out).

Truth be told, I initially included the "From:" location category to underline the global influence on the WBBL, because it's clear that teams without at least two world-class locals and two world-class overseas players (with thorough experience in Australian conditions, importantly) have struggled.

Three franchise captains made it into the Elite XI, and Suzie Bates seems like the most natural. Villani got her sums wrong the other day and was "forced" to bowl herself for the final over (classic park cricket move). And having Perry focus her energy on setting fields and tactics feels like a waste (plus, she always under-utilises herself with the ball). People don't want to see the diplomatic, thoughtful Diana Prince; they want to see the cartwheeling, fly-kicking Wonder Woman!

Liking this post didn't feel like enough - great post! I don't necessarily agree with the Elite XI, but I was only really watching the matches on TV, I wasn't keeping up with what happened outside the tv games.

:thumbsu::thumbsu::thumbsu:
 
Dec 21, 2012
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I have been following the WBBL a little closer than normal this year. One thing I will say is that the Sixers won game 1 last weekend largely off of Healy's ton and she seems to very much be a feast or famine type player. If the Strikers can get her relatively early then I'd say they're better than a good chance of winning.
 
I have been following the WBBL a little closer than normal this year. One thing I will say is that the Sixers won game 1 last weekend largely off of Healy's ton and she seems to very much be a feast or famine type player. If the Strikers can get her relatively early then I'd say they're better than a good chance of winning.
She's tracking eerily similar to last season where she started off with about a dozen games that were mostly underwhelming, then scored 200+ runs in her last three knocks enabling the Sixers (who were missing a few of their other stars at the time) to win the title.
 

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Tipping the Sixers to win today. Perry, Healy and Gardner have been a little inconsistent at times, but they are best top 3 in the WBBL and should be the difference in the end.
 
So instead of my WBBL|01 replay forecast, it'll be a rematch of last year's final between the Sixers and the Scorchers but this time at Adelaide Oval.

Perth are batting first and will come out of this match with either a 1-1 record in championship deciders, or a much less attractive 0-2.

Sydney on the other hand have been the team of the league ever since midway through the first season, so there's a bit of pressure there to make sure they have more than one trophy to show for it.

No change for either team from the semis--the Scorchers had quite even contributions across their XI to win comfortably against the Thunder, whereas the 6ers managed to knock over the Strikers really only on the back of a couple standout performances (Gardner with the bat, Aley with the ball).

Hope it's another tight "BIG Final" (margins were 7 runs in 2017 and 3 balls remaining in 2016), and it all gets underway in a couple of minutes.
 
Sciver and Brunt might be better suited to scoring runs on this pitch, but only 12 overs left with a lot of ground to make up. No use is Banting hanging around, she's gotta go hard or go home!
 

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