Two wickets from Deandra Dottin and a 60-run onslaught from Hayley Matthews have the Melbourne Renegades sitting pretty atop Australia’s Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) table after a nine-wicket thrashing of the Sydney Thunder.
The Renegades’ Matthews hit 60 (seven fours, two sixes) from 37 balls, and Sophie Molineux added 42 (seven fours, one six), as they made light work of the run chase with an unbroken 95-run partnership. The Gades raced to the target from 14.2 overs.
The 26th T20 half-century for the 260year-old Barbadian, and her 12th in franchise cricket, moved her to 255 runs for the season. That’s as many runs in nine innings as she made last year in 14 times at bat. In her eight outings Down Under, she has only made more runs once, 297 with Hobart Hurricanes in 2017-2018.
Earlier in the piece, the Thunder were bowled out for 133 in 19.1 overs with Renegades spinner Molineux snaring 4-23 at Melbourne’s Junction Oval.
The Thunder had struggled to gain traction with the top-order batters failing to capitalise. Dottin, Matthews’ teammate with the West Indies, took 2-24 from her four overs.
Phoebe Litchfield top-scored with 30, hitting six fours from her 17 deliveries while No.7 Sammy-Jo Johnson made 21 from 19 balls.
Openers Georgia Voll, Chamari Athapaththu, and Georgia Adams all made 11, as the Thunder slipped from 3-95 in 12th over and lost their last seven wickets for 38 runs.
Georgia Wareham (2-20) also claimed multiple wickets.
The Renegades moved to 14 points, taking top spot from the Thunder (13 points). The result guaranteed them at least a top two finish, and the result of the Sixers-Heat clash sealed the Melbourne outfit as the top team this season.
Brisbane Heat downed Sydney Sixers by five wickets, but failed to steal WBBL final hosting rights from the Renegades.
Heat, chasing the Sixers’ 140 all out, reached their target from 17 overs for victory at Allan Border Field. But they needed to chase down their target in 13.3 overs to eclipse Renegades on net run rate and secure hosting rights for the final.
Renegades will host the WBBL decider at the MCG next Sunday night after topping the table from the second-placed Heat.
(TF)
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