- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The last spot in the Women’s Big Bash League final is up for grabs, as the Hobart Hurricanes take on the red-hot Sydney Sixers at the MCG. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 2:30pm (AEDT).
» WBBL live stream: how to watch every game of WBBL|02
» 2016-17 WBBL Fixtures: The complete schedule for this season
» The Roar’s Women’s Big Bash League coverage
The Sixers have dominated the headlines lately, with their miraculous late-season turnaround taking them from dead last on the ladder to third place and a semi-final berth.
They aim to make it an incredible ninth win in a row here today to reach a final that looked impossibly out of reach a mere two weeks ago.
They have stiff competition in the Hurricanes, who along with the Thunder have been the pacesetters for the season. They went through their first five games undefeated, and only a slip-up on the New Year weekend – suffering three straight losses – that prevented them from finishing on top of the table.
This will be the third match in a week between the two sides, as they faced off twice over the weekend to complete the regular season. The Sixers won a rain-affected game on Friday to keep their season alive, and then completed one of the most exciting finishes of this cricketing summer on Sunday, as the chasing Sixers fell to 4-20 before New Zealand international Sara McGlashan turned the innings around with her knock of 79*.
Needing 14 off the final over and two off the last ball, she got the job done to pull of a dramatic victory.
The emotion of Sunday’s thriller will necessarily spill over to this clash. The Sixers are riding a wave of momentum and will want to keep it rolling, while the Hurricanes have to put the heartbreak of a last-ball loss behind them.
Sydney’s change in fortune has coincided with their star players returning to form. Elysse Perry and Alyssa Healy are incredibly hard to stop when they get off to a good start, and that is the platform on which the Sixers have built their wins. They remain key players for the magentas, and key wickets for the Hurricanes if they want to stem the run flow.
The other key wicket will be that of McGlashan, who is in scintillating form and could tear the game apart with another big innings. Getting her cheaply could be a big psychological blow.
The Hurricanes, on the other hand, are the least star-studded team in WBBL, but possibly the most cohesive and consistent across the board. From Heather Knight opening the batting, to Amy Satterthwaite and Corrine Hall in the middle order, they have a strong batting line-up that can post a total.
Hurricane Veronica Pyke is one of the unsung heroes of the inaugural WBBL. She is the leading wicket-taker in the competition, and has been troubling all opposition batters with her left-arm ball. Julie Hunter has been going for under five runs an over as well, and again, while they don’t grab the headlines, the Hurricanes’ bowling line-up have been getting consistent results all season.
The Sixers’ strike bowler is South African Marizanne Kapp. Her sickeningly tight bowling is the most economical of all the competition’s bowlers, and has spearheaded their revival just as much as their star players have with the bat. If she can strangle the Hurricanes during her overs it opens up all sorts of opportunities for the Sixers’ attack.
Momentum is a funny thing in cricket. It can dictate the course of games, but it can also leave as quickly as it comes. The Sixers have been riding high for eight games now, and when every match is ‘must win’, one wonders how long they can walk that tightrope.
The Hurricanes have been quietly consistent all season, and while the team who finished higher shouldn’t really be considered underdogs, it feels like they are, so I’ll pick the roughie and predict that the Hurricanes will end the Sixers’ fairytale season.
Join The Roar from 2:30pm (AEDT) for live scores and updates on the game.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.