High Voll-tage innings powers Thunder past Scorchers to WBBL summit
The latest iteration of the WBBL's popular 'Stadium Series' at the Melbourne Cricket Ground saw the Sydney Thunder comfortably chase what was a better-than-par score of 170 and, with their first successful run chase of the season, avenge their midweek loss at home to Perth to leap to the top of the WBBL10 standings with three rounds to play.
In the middle of an MCG bathed in late spring sunshine, Scorchers captain Sophie Devine won the bat flip and chose to bat first on a fresh pitch that had true bounce and carry throughout the Scorchers innings and opening batter Beth Mooney was away almost immediately, taking WBBL10 leading wicket-taker Samantha Bates for back-to-back boundaries to set the tone.
Whilst her opening partner Chloe Piparo continued her struggle for runs throughout WBBL10, Mooney put Thursday night's second-over run-out behind her and steered the Scorchers out of what would have been a streaky powerplay owing to the cheap dismissals of both Piparo and Dayalan Hemalatha, the latter of whom was dismissed LBW by a well-directed inswinger from first change Thunder seamer Taneale Peschel.
Coming into this game as the only Scorchers batter to have registered at least 100 runs in WBBL10, Mooney also became their first past 200 with her second half-century in five outings.
The 188-cap international appeared to be at her most confident in the company of her captain Devine as they scored with great consistency throughout the middle overs, playing clever lap sweeps and powerful pulls and sweets to pick out gaps in the outfield with authority.
She rode her luck throughout a very fortuitous innings in which she was dropped by Thunder fielders on no fewer than four different occasions in the first 12 overs alone, including twice during Shabnim Ismail's Power Surge over alone (by Samantha Bates and Sammy-Jo Johnson).
Contributing only one-third of her first 50 runs as a partnership with Mooney, Devine had enough of being second fiddle and took apart Hannah Darlington during the second over of the surge, assisted by a crucial front foot no-ball that contributed to the Scorchers' best Power Surge (26 runs) of the season so far.
That was the moment where Devine grew into the innings and her own strike rate surged into triple figures, and consequently the dot balls were drying up rapidly as Thunder bowlers were unable to pin down either of the two during their lengthy 112-run stand - beating their best of the season by nearly 70.
The death overs dismissals of Devine and Mooney did slow things down a touch, particularly when Amy Jones departed the competition (ahead of England's tour of South Africa) with a sixth consecutive score of fewer than 20 runs.
Interviewed by the host broadcast immediately following her dismissal, a pragmatic Beth Mooney described herself as "a cat with nine lives" rather than opting to regret falling three runs short of what would have been her fourth WBBL century.
Facing a required run rate over eight, the Thunder run chase got off to a positive start when Georgia Voll blasted five fours in the first five overs as Chamari Athapaththu watched on without breaking a sweat. Athapaththu was the victim of some miscommunication with Voll when run out at the non-strikers' end after an outstanding collect and return from Alana King, who chased after a sky-high top edge off her own bowling.
A flurry of dot balls both during and after the powerplay brought the required run rate up close to ten and it forced Phoebe Litchfield to open up her shoulders and take on the off-spin of Lilly Mills’ first over, which became the second-most expensive of the innings.
The Devine-Mooney combination again landed a one-two jab in the tenth over when Phoebe Litchfield attempted to continue building some momentum by charging down the pitch to Devine, who pushed a wide ball out of her reach to lead to a simple stumping for Mooney.
It was left to Voll to manage the required run rate of nine per over and, in addition to routinely exploiting the vast expanses of the MCG outfield, she got some assistance from Englishwoman Heather Knight in her final game of the tournament. When they opted for the Power Surge needing 42 off the final five overs, the run chase looked as good as done.
Knight would fall during the first over of the surge but Voll maintained control and struck boundaries from each of the following three overs to finish off one of the highest run chases in tournament history and take ample momentum into the closing weeks of the season, where they could potentially meet the Scorchers again in the playoffs.