The special moments that shaped the Adelaide Strikers’ stellar season
Adelaide Strikers finished WBBL05 in second place on the ladder. Prior to their win over the Perth Scorchers on Saturday morning, Liz Walsh looked back over one special season.
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It’s been a mammoth season so far for the Adelaide Strikers, and they’re now in the grand final.
Before Saturday’s semi-final, we went through the moments that shaped the Strikers season...so far.
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* October 19: New recruit Stafanie Taylor takes a wicket with her first ball in blue:
This season, the Strikers welcomed West Indian captain Stafanie Taylor to the team, who’d joined them from Sydney Thunder.
One of the world’s best allrounders, Taylor took the ball for the first time in her new electric blue colours in game one.
It was a fairy tale start: she was given the ball in the fifth over and had immediate impact, having Renegades’ Claire Koski caught at mid-wicket by Megan Schutt.
Five balls later and Taylor clean bowled Tammy Beaumont and the Renegades were on the ropes.
Two wickets in her first over: welcome to Adelaide!
* October 26: Tegan McPharlin’s run out of Chloe Tryon:
Game three saw the Strikers take on Hobart Hurricanes in the shade of Brisbane’s jacaranda trees at Allan Border Field.
Coming into this game, the Hurricanes were undefeated (2-0), their hero being Chloe Tryon who’d been so-far unbeaten after make 46 (18 balls) followed by 29 (18 balls).
In this game, the Strikers made a disappointing 8/113 from their 20 overs and it was a tough ask to defend a slim total. But the bowlers were tight and Hurricane wickets fell. In the 19th over, with the Hurricanes at 6/101, they needed 13 runs from nine balls. Easily gettable. Match-winning Tyron was at the crease on one run.
Megan Schutt was bowling: she sent the ball in, Tryon swung and missed. Keeper Tegan McPharlin took the ball cleanly and quickly realised that Tryon was well out of her crease. McPharlin underarmed the ball and hit the stumps and Tryon was run out (or was she stumped?).
The quick thinking to remove the ‘Canes dangerous big-hitter was pivotal in that win.
*November 10, Sophie Devine is dropped twice in the first three overs:
T20 cricket is all about moments and two really big ones happened in the second and third overs when Strikers played Melbourne Stars at Karen Rolton Oval.
Devine – one of the biggest hitters in WBBL history – was twice dropped by Mignon du Preez: firstly when Devine was on one, and then the following over when she was on four.
This second time, Devine was so sure she was out, she turned her head as soon as she’d struck it and then started walking off the pitch.
But the ball tumbled from du Preez’s hands and Devine’s opening partner Suzie Bates called her back.
Devine recalls it like this: “It was a shocking shot by me … I was already off cursing at myself.
Ninety-nine times out of 100 Mignon would catch that ball.
It’s just one of those things, that’s where cricket’s a funny game.
Suzie said to me after that second dropped catch: ‘Make them pay now’.”
Make them pay, she did. In the 19th over, she brought up her half-century (what would turn out to be her second of five consecutive 50-plus scores this season) and at the start of the 20th over, Katie Mack took a quick single to get Devine back on strike.
Devine recalls: “Katie Mack says that’s the best single she’s ever got in her life”.
With the final five balls of Adelaide’s innings, Devine smashed an incredible five consecutive sixes to not only set a record for the highest number of runs hit in a single WBBL over (31), but become the first woman to hit five straight sixes.
She finished on an unbeaten 85 from 56 balls.
The Strikers went on to beat the stars by 17 runs and snapped their two-game losing streak and turned it into a remarkable six-game winning run instead.
* November 20: Megan Schutt’s bowling figures against Sydney Thunder:
The Strikers bowling line-up has been heralded by the team’s coaches as one of the major reasons the team has finished second on the ladder.
Leading the team’s economy has been its opening bowler Megan Schutt.
Against the Thunder in Wollongong, Schutt’s bowling figures of 0/15 from her four overs (an economy of 3.75 for the day) took her economy rate below 5 and atop the WBBL comp. Schutt has bowled more overs than anyone else this WBBL – 55 – and despite that, has finished the season with the comp’s best economy rate: 5.67. Not bad for someone who bowls through the power play.
* November 23: Wellington’s diving at the boundary against Hurricanes to save runs:
In a game the Strikers won by only two runs, bowler Amanda-Jade Wellington became a matchwinner when the Hurricanes hit a ball towards the rope and Wellington dived at the ball, flicking it back away from the boundary.
Reviewed by the umpires, it was so close, Wellington had saved two runs … the difference in the game.
Wellington recalls: “I’ve actually never stopped a ball like that before, and I did it twice in that game. I don’t know where that’s come from, but I’m glad it’s snuck in at the right time. I’m not the world’s best fielder … but I was really happy with my performance that weekend.”
Winning the close games this season made all the difference for the Strikers.
* November 24: Katie Mack’s third run on the final ball of the innings:
Strikers were playing Thunder at Hobart’s Blundstone Arena to secure a spot in the finals with two games to spare.
Batting first, the Strikers had scored 158 runs; decent, but not brilliant. After Wellington was trapped lbw, Tegan McPharlin came to the crease for the last ball of the innings, alongside fast-running Katie Mack.
McPharlin struck the ball and called two: they ran, but Mack was not satisfied and called for a third run.
As the Thunder fielder threw the ball in, it was off-target and the batters made it.
Had Mack not called for that run, the side would have lost.
Coach Luke Williams said after the game: “Katie’s had a really pivotal role in a number of games and today was another example of that with the three (runs). It’s probably just that team first philosophy, when she went for the three, she probably thought more than likely she was going to get run out, but at the end of the day, you don’t lose anything from trying so that’s something that we talk about a lot, and the entire group is very much team-focused and Katie exemplifies that.”
* December 1, Annie O’Neil debuts:
One of the amazing things about this Strikers squad this season has been its stability.
For the first 13 of the 14 minor round games there was only one change: England’s Lauren “Moose” Winfield in for West Indian Stafanie Taylor.
But this change was always known; Taylor joined the Strikers with the understanding she could play the first two games, the last two games and finals, with national duties taking up the other 10 games.
But, in a big blow for the Strikers, Taylor injured her knee playing for the Windies against India and her WBBL campaign was over. Winfield can’t play finals – along with any English players – who are off on an English cricket camp.
So, with finals well and truly locked away, coach Luke Williams used the last minor round game to make his first change: big bash debutant Annie O’Neil in for Alex Price. The side may have lost to the Sixers, but that’s not the point.
We can assume O’Neil will play her second WBBL game in Saturday’s semi-final against Perth Scorchers, importantly with her first-game nerves already dealt with.
* Scenes! Unbelievable scenes!:
If there’s one word to sum up the Strikers’ season it would be “scenes”. Why? It’s a saying the players – and coaches – say to each other constantly. What started as “unbelievable scenes” quickly shrunk to “scenes”.
So, Sophie Devine hits five consecutive sixes? Scenes!
Bridget Patterson takes a running catch along the boundary? Scenes!
Sarah Coyte walks off Hurtsville Oval with figures of 3/9? Scenes!
But, this team has provided many “scenes” of their own.
A few that The Advertiser has loved seeing is when they stood, arm-in-arm watching fireworks in Mackay after their eight-wicket win in game five against Brisbane Heat. And when they went ten-pin bowling in Sydney all dressed up.
Or when the players decided in game 12 that Amanda-Jade Wellington was the real “player of the match” against Sydney Thunder (Devine had been handed the accolade) and instead awarded it to her.
And we’ve loved it because it’s summed up just how tight this squad is. Scenes!
