Adelaide Strikers crush Melbourne Stars in front of big Nuriootpa crowd to keep WBBL05 top-four hopes alive
Adelaide Strikers crush Melbourne Stars by 57 runs in a rampant display of big bash cricket, where Sophie Devine added another WBBL record to her name.
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MELBOURNE Stars headed to the picturesque Barossa Valley desperately needing a win over Adelaide Strikers on Saturday to keep their flailing WBBL season alive.
Instead, they left Nuriootpa’s Centennial Park Oval having been completely starstruck by a rampant Strikers outfit determined to make their second-ever finals appearance.
In front of a big crowd of 1831, Adelaide was clinical and precise in its mammoth 57-run drubbing of the league’s ladder-dwellers.
They knocked up 2/153, with star all-rounder Sophie Devine hitting an unbeaten 77 and in the process becoming the first person in WBBL history to hit four consecutive half-centuries.
The tight bowlers then restricted the Stars to 8/96 from their 20 overs, with Devine starring again, finishing with figures of 3/13 from three overs in a player of the match performance.
The sides played each other only six days ago, when the Strikers left Karen Rolton Oval as 17-run victors.
That win had been built largely on the heroics of star all-rounder Sophie Devine, who smashed a record-making five consecutive sixes from the final five balls of the innings.
But as in that game the Star’s top order batters Lizelle Lee and Mignon du Preez caused wreaked havoc on Adelaide’s bowlers. Du Preez’s 70 from 51 balls and Lee’s 52 from 41 balls very nearly stole the game away from Adelaide.
So heading into Saturday’s game, the Strikers bowling line-up knew a rethink was needed. During the week, Devine revealed the team would certainly revisit and adjust their bowling plans to negate the influence of Stars’ batters.
Clearly they did. And it worked, with Stars’ three top order batters – Elyse Villani, Lee and du Preez – dismissed inside the first six overs for a combined total of 16 runs.
Megan Schutt’s economy was eye-watering for a bowler who takes over during the power play with 0/13 from four overs, while Amanda-Jade Wellington took 1/13.
Earlier in the day, Adelaide was sent into bat by the Stars and after having their run total kickstarted by four wides in the first over, captain Suzie Bates found the boundary three times before she cut the ball straight to cover and was caught by Lee for 18.
After Tahlia McGrath lost her wicket three overs later (caught at mid-wicket for 10), Bridget Patterson joined Devine at the crease and the duo piled on a 102-partnership, which included entertaining quick running between the wickets – at one point that running enabled a cheeky two where speedy Patterson almost lapped Devine.
Patterson brought up her 1000th WBBL run thanks to a beautifully timed boundary and it typified the rest her measured innings, finishing unbeaten on 41 (29 balls).
While last week, Devine and Katie Mack piled on 31 in the final over (now a WBBL record for most runs in an over), Devine and Patterson’s biggest over came in the 18th when they tonked 21 off Erin Osborne.
That mammoth over included two fours and a six to Patterson, a quick single and then a whopping six to Devine that cleared the fence by so much that it bounced its way through the nearby Nuriootpa caravan park.
Devine brought up her unbeaten 77 with the help of three sixes: none of which were consecutive, but delighted the big crowd nonetheless.
Next up, the Strikers take on Sydney Thunder on Wednesday afternoon in Woolongong to cement their top-four standing.