Kiwis in #WBBL04: Sophie Devine's Back
Thankfully, the Women's Big Bash League has come swiftly after the super downbuzz World T20 campaign for Aotearoa's White Ferns. This allows the best kiwi women cricketers the chance to link up with their WBBL clubs and continue to roll forward, although the number of kiwis in WBBL this summer reflects the White Ferns mediocre form of the past 12 months. All the big dawgs are still in action though and with little movement between clubs from a kiwi perspective, it's all rather familiar.
Game one was between Hobart Hurricanes and Perth Scorchers, featuring no kiwi ladies. Perth got the win on Saturday, before the other Saturday game saw Sara McGlashan in action for Sydney Sixers vs Melbourne Stars. McGlashan managed 14 off 17 deliveries, again batting in the middle order behind the superstar top-three of Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy and Ashleigh Gardner; Perry and Healy both hit 50+ to reach 165/7.
Melbourne Stars were able to chase their target down in 17.2 overs, thanks to South African international Lizelle Lee's 102* off just 56 balls. McGlashan doesn't bowl, so her contributions are limited to doing her middle order job when required and as always, that doesn't exactly mean scoring big runs as McGlashan's often coming in to put the finishing touches on an innings.
Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine started with a win for Adelaide Strikers, defeating Brisbane Heat. Bates was run out on 1, but Devine filled the void with 89 off 55 deliveries (161.81sr) to take the Strikers up to 172/7 from their 20 overs. In the two World T20 games that really mattered (vs India, Australia), Devine hit scores of 9 and 0 before finding a splash of form in the last two games against weaker opposition; 32 vs Pakistan, 51 vs Ireland.
This the Devine we expect and the beauty in Devine's work is that she's likely to also have an impact with the ball. She didn't take a wicket in 3ov @ 8.33rpo in this game as Brisbane were stranded on 136/2 from their 20 overs, trying to chase down 173 for victory. There are good signs though with Devine having an immediate impact with the bat, so we'll be keeping a close eye on how Devine contributes with bat and ball through WBBL.
The fourth and last game from the weekend saw Amy Satterthwaite and Lea Tahuhu in action for Melbourne Renegades, in their loss to Rachel Priest's Sydney Thunder. As per Satterthwaite's form since taking over the captaincy duties, the Renegades put up an awkward 98/8 from their 20 overs with Satterthwaite contributing 9 off 12.
Keep in mind that Satterthwaite had scores of 3, 2, 26 and 10* in the World T20, again failing in the big games vs India and Australia. Satterthwaite averaged 14.33 in a three game T20I series vs Australia, in Australia prior to World T20 and earlier in the year she averaged 19.33 in three games vs England, in England. The early signs aren't good, but here's hoping Satterthwaite's WBBL is not a continuation of her borderline horrible form of 2018.
Rachel Priest hit 9 off 16, opening for the Thunder as they chased their target down in 16.5ov. Tahuhu has also been lacklustre with the ball, taking 5w in four World T20 games and taking only 1w in seven games in Australia and England this year. Defending a total of 98 ain't helping Tahuhu and while she was fairly economical, she couldn't take a wicket in her 3ov @ 5.33rpo.
The next round of games is this weekend. At the moment we only have Devine ranked any where of note in the run-scoring/wicket-taking rankings; Devine is 2nd in runs after her 89.
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Peace and love 27.