White Ferns x WBBL02: Update #8
Not a White Fern but a champ.
Kia ora to Sara McGlashan as she's our White Ferns x WBBL02 champ. McGlashan's Sydney Sixers defeated Suzie Bates and her Perth Scorchers to snap up WBBL02 glory, although neither of our kiwi ladies did a whole lot in the final. In fact, McGlashan and Bates pretty much exactly what you don't want to do in T20 cricket with the willow.
While Bates picked up a wicket and conceded 5rpo, McGlashan was unable to influence the game from her No.4 batting spot. Hitting 8 off 12 balls, McGlashan didn't hit a boundary and soaked up 12 deliveries in the process which isn't ideal, especially after McGlashan had enjoyed a streak of handy scores leading into the final. Sydney put up 124/5 off their 20 overs and that ended up being enough to seal victory.
Bates was unfortunate to be run out, although her innings resembled that off McGlashan's as she scored 7 off 14 balls. There were no boundaries in Bates' innings either meaning that no kiwi hit a boundary in the final and instead of having a major influence on the game, both were largely non-factors.
Solid without being spectacular; that's the best way to describe Bates' WBBL02 campaign. She averaged 22.14 with the bat and had a strike-rate of 92.53, which is handy but after scoring back to back half-centuries early in January, Bates was then unable to pass 28 runs in an innings. Adding to Bates' value though was her ability with the ball which saw her take 13 wickets @ 26.53avg/6.57rpo, this off-set her inability to dominate in either aspect as she could still contribute.
Veteran kiwi cricketer McGlashan didn't score a half-century in the WBBL02 but she did finish with more runs than both Bates and Amy Satterthwaite, thanks largely to her consistency and her playing three more games than Satterthwaite. McGlashan averaged 24.50 which wasn't a whole lot better than Bates' average but she had a strike-rate of 100.29 and was able to thrive in her role which often saw her coming in after the batswomen ahead of her had laid a nice foundation.
The best overall performer from a kiwi perspective was however Satterthwaite who finished with the highest average of all players to score over 300 runs. Satterthwaite not only averaged 46.14, she also owned a strike-rate of 110.61 and as she only played 13 games while most others played 16, Satterthwaite finished 11th in run-scoring. Throw in 15 wickets (ranked 7th) with her off-spin and Satterthwaite finished in a rare spot where she have a batting average over 40 and a bowling average under 25 (20.73avg).
The White Ferns are now gearing up to wrap up their domestic stuff before they take on Australia in T20 and ODI games. I'll drop something about the two squads named for those series in the next few days.