Canes eye WBBL decider after pitch chaos mars ‘bizarre’ Adelaide clash
Hurricanes star Molly Strano has declared they’re primed for next Saturday’s home WBBL final, but not before describing the warm up chaos which forced the abandonment of Friday’s clash in Adelaide as ‘bizarre’.
The Hobart Hurricanes women’s side will follow in the footsteps of the men’s, hosting this years WBBL final at Ninja Stadium.
The Hurricanes had locked in top spot thanks to an upset win by the Melbourne Renegades over Sydney Sixers earlier on Friday.
The Hurricanes and Strikers game was abandoned due one of the strangest incidents on a cricket field.
While warming up between innings, Strikers’ Tahlia McGrath threw a ball which got caught under the pitch roller and created a massive divot in the centre wicket.
After careful consideration, the officials eventually called the game, which has ended the Strikers chance of playing finals.
Hurricanes’ Molly Strano said it was nice to be able to secure the home final.
“We’ve done a lot of travel this tournament and we’ve sort of been here and everywhere, so it’ll be really nice for the girls to go to just base themselves in Hobart this week and relax,” Strano said.
“It’s always nice taking some momentum into a finals campaign, so we were still really determined to win tonight and it’s really disappointing way to finish the round element of it all, quite bizarre fashion as well.
“I’ve never experienced anything like that before in my cricketing career but yeah disappointing that we couldn’t go out there and have a bat today and chase down that total but we’ll be going home tomorrow pretty happy.”
Strano took the new ball and finished with figures of 1-17 from her three overs.
“I enjoyed bowling with the new ball, so any opportunity that I get to do that for the team, I’m always happy to put my hand up for that,” Strano said.
“But I think the strength of our bowling attack is that we’re very versatile and depending on match-ups and who we’re coming up against and the conditions that we’re faced with can sort of dictate who bowls when.
“So we’re all pretty flexible and I think that’s sort of been a strength of throughout the campaign that teams find it really hard to prepare against us because they don’t really know what we’re going to throw at them.
“It was nice to have the new ball today and bowl a few overs in the middle and it was a pretty good bowling performance in total in the end there because it was a really good batting wicket and a fast outfield.”
The Hurricanes players will now spend the next week preparing for the final which will be played on Saturday, December 13 from 7.10pm against the winner of the Challenger on Thursday night.
Tiger’s ‘brutal’ response to Shield axing
After being left out of the Tasmania Tigers squad against South Australia, Charlie Wakim has returned to the Premier competition in devastating fashion.
Wakim hit his fourth century of the season for Lindisfarne in Thursday night’s CTPL T20 opener against North Hobart, guiding his side to a monster 127-run win.
The opener plundered the ball to all parts of Lindisfarne Oval eventually finishing with 114 runs off 52 deliveries in an innings which included 16 boundaries and five 6s as his side posted a huge 6-247.
It was the near perfect response to being dropped after just one Tasmanian appearance, playing the most recent Sheffield Shield game against New South Wales where he scored 22.
Across all grades, including some time in Sydney to start the season, Wakim has scored 840 runs at an average of 52.5.
Lindisfarne coach Matt Wilkie described his performance as a “class above”.
“It was some pretty smart batting, nice cricket shots with some brutal hitting as well,” Wilkie said.
“I’d say there is a little bit of frustration in not playing at the level he wants to but it was a great way to go about it. He knows how to perform, he’s done it for years.”
Wakim’s impressive form wasn’t the only storyline to emerge from the game with Rory McAlpin claiming the first five-wicket haul of his career.
He finished with figures of 5-26 as the Demons were bowled out for 120.
Such was the level of performance, Hobart Hurricanes skipper Nathan Ellis and Lindisfarne gun James Bourke weren’t required to roll the arm over.
“Rory has been a bit of a part-timer for us in the past,” Wilkie said.
“It’s nice to have such an array of bowling options.”
Clarence kicked off its campaign with a thrilling three-run win over University. Despite conceding 11 runs in the final over, the home side managed to come away with the victory as Zac Phair (73no off 56) threatened to rip the game away. Clarence posted 8-161 from its 20 overs with Michael Jones (79no off 57) and Ryan Borsboom (37 off 33) doing the heavy lifting as the only batters to reach double figures. Khushwinder Singh finished with 4-31 for University.
Kingborough claimed a five-wicket win over New Town as Josh Henley turned in one of his best bowling performances of the season with 4-26. It was an effort which helped restrict the visitors to 9-139. In response, Dylan Hay’s run a ball 56 helped guide his side across the line with three balls to spare.
CTPL clubs will now turn their attention to two-day games which start on Saturday.
U19 Cricket Nationals: Final four set in stone after thrilling last day
