- Dec 21, 2012
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That was amateur hour from 10. If the Stars only needed to tie to win, why did the graphics say they needed to score 1 more run to win?
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.
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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!
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!
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.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.
This is excellent death bowling from the Strikers.
Sixers going to be about 10 short I reckon.
Would need Bates or Devine to bat through to get this I reckon.
What a collapse. 6/3