Amy Satterthwaite and Lea Tahuhu shut the door on any chance of Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine reaching the WBBL04 finals, booking a spot for Melbourne Renegades in the semi-finals along with Sara McGlashan's Sydney Sixers and Rachel Priest's Sydney Thunder. This caps off a fairly disappointing WBBL04 for Adelaide Strikers, although with Bates and Devine both in the top-five for runs, the kiwis tried their bestest.

I'll start with the Strikers, who played two games against Hayley Jensen's Perth Scorchers. To give themselves any chance of finals cricket, Adelaide had to win both their games and unfortunately they had a win and a loss. Even if they won both those games, the Renegades were required to lose both their games and they also enjoyed a win and a loss; Adelaide couldn't handle their own business first and foremost.

In their win, Devine hit 59 off 48 and Bates 22 off 2, putting up 41 runs before Bates was dismissed in the 7th over. Adelaide were left on 138/7 from their 20 overs and Jensen managed to snare 1w @ 8rpo from her 4ov for Perth. Devine then took 1w @ 4.50rpo in 2ov as Adelaide rolled Perth for 108 with Jensen hitting 5 off 5.

Then came a win for Perth, with Adelaide again batting first. Devine was out for 8 off 14 and Bates went on to hit 39 off 35 as Adelaide worked their way to a solid 140/6, while Jensen was again among the wickets with 2w @ 7.25rpo in 4ov. No Strikers bowler was among the wickets in the run-chase though as Perth enjoyed a 10-wicket win in 16.4 overs with Devine conceding 6rpo in 3ov.

Devine finished 2nd in runs with 556r @ 46.33avg/136.60sr and she did so playing 13 games, while the other batswomen in the top-five (including Bates) all played 14 games. Bates finished 4th with 421r @ 35.08avg/112.26sr. Devine was also impressive with the ball, taking 14w @ 21.71avg/8.85rpo and while a sign of Adelaide's struggles was that their next best batter finished 14th in runs, another bummer was Devine being the best Adelaide bowler while ranked 11th.

From a kiwi perspective, Bates and Devine gave Adelaide great service yet again. From an Adelaide perspective, they needed greater support to make any waves in WBBL04.

Jensen and Perth also bow out of WBBL04, with Jensen taking 8w in 6inns @ 22.87avg/7.95rpo. Jensen is joined by Sara McGlashan and Rachel Priest as not being part of the White Ferns squad to face India - McGlashan and Priest haven't been recent White Ferns though.

Sattertwhaite put up her best knock of WBBL04, to take her Renegades to 146/6 batting first vs Hobart Hurricanes. Giving it a decent tonk, Satterthwaite hit 66 off 57 and Tahuhu was then impressive with the ball despite only taking 1 wicket as she conceded just 4.50rpo off her 4ov. Satterthwaite had a trundle, conceding 9rpo from her lone over and the Renegades enjoyed a narrow win, keeping Hobart to 143/6 .

Up against Sydney Sixers in their other game of the weekend, the Renegades faltered and will now back up against the Sixers in their semi-final. Tahuhu couldn't take a wicket, but conceded 1.75rpo from her 4ov as the Sixers reached 136/2 and with Satterthwaite only able to contribute 7 runs, the Renegades were left stranded on 107/8.

McGlashan hasn't really done anything with the bat other than a few not-out innings, mainly because she hasn't needed to. With a 5-ball duck in the Sixers loss to Melbourne Stars, McGlashan has also struggled to cash in on her chances to make big contributions and who knows how McGlashan will go in the semi-final.

Rachel Priest is carrying some of her pinch-hitting form into finals cricket though, after blasting 21 off 9 balls in Sydney Thunder's loss to Brisbane Heat. The Thunder put up an impressive 171/7 only for the Heat to chase it down in the last over. With a capable batting line up around her featuring, Priest isn't required to score a bunch of runs and is instead tasked with firing things up, with her overall strike-rate of 134.34 and she'll be hoping to repeat the dose in the other semi-final as it's Sydney Thunder vs Brisbane Heat again.

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Peace and love 27.