Almost a year after lifting their maiden Women’s Big Bash League title at Bellerive Oval, the Hobart Hurricanes are confronting an uncomfortable reality: winless and rooted to the bottom of the WBBL 12 table after five league-stage matches. Coach Jude Coleman, however, insists the defending champions have not lost belief, even as their finals hopes hang by a thread ahead of Saturday’s crucial meeting with the Brisbane Heat.
Missing Stars Disrupt Title Defence
Hobart’s title defence has been undermined by a series of untimely departures and injuries. Natalie Sciver-Brunt opted out of the tournament, former captain Elyse Villani retired after the Hurricanes’ eight-wicket triumph over the Perth Scorchers in the WBBL 11 final, and star opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge was ruled out before the season began. Spinner Linsey Smith’s injury has added to the disruption, although she is expected to return before the campaign ends.
Coleman acknowledged that the absence of the English trio has inevitably affected the club’s planning and balance. “I’d be crazy to think that it hasn’t been,” she said. “You do all your planning with players in mind. You set up a game plan with certain players in mind, and then they change at the last minute.”
Powerplay Batting Loses Its Bite
The most glaring issue has been Hobart’s batting. Last season, the Hurricanes were a Powerplay juggernaut, scoring at 8.72 runs per over and losing only nine wickets in the opening four overs across the campaign. Wyatt-Hodge and Lizelle Lee formed a formidable opening partnership, averaging 45 for the first wicket at 9.71 runs per over. This season, Hobart are scoring just 5.65 runs per over in the Powerplay and have already lost seven wickets in that phase.
Lizelle Lee began promisingly with 57 in the tournament opener but has since endured three consecutive single-digit scores, leaving her with 89 runs at 17.8 from five innings. Chamari Athapaththu, drafted in as Wyatt-Hodge’s replacement, has managed only 39 runs at 7.8, with a strike rate of 59. Her difficult tournament included a 10 off 26 against the Adelaide Strikers, after which she retired out. Coleman described that decision as one of the hardest she has made as a coach. “It was a tough innings, and to be honest, it was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make as a coach,” she said.
New skipper Nicola Carey has been the batting side’s standout. The Australian allrounder has made 161 runs at 53.66, striking at 128.80, with two half-centuries in four innings. Her form has provided stability in a middle order that has been forced into a far larger role than last season, when Villani’s finishing and the dominance of the top order often spared the lower order meaningful exposure.
Heather Graham, promoted to No.6, has 68 runs at 13.6, while recruits Maddy Green and Chinelle Henry have shown flashes without regular opportunity. Green has 88 runs at 29, and Henry has struck at 151 in compiling 86 runs. Coleman indicated that the batting order could be reshaped to make better use of both. “She’s a specialist floater,” Coleman said of Henry. “The last game we did make a couple of changes; they just didn’t eventuate to (allow us to) use her as a floater, but there are plans to use her and Maddy more.”
Bowling Offers a Glimmer of Hope
The bowling has been more encouraging. Graham has been Hobart’s leading wicket-taker with eight scalps at 17.37 and an economy of 6.95, placing her joint fourth in the tournament alongside Sydney Sixers’ Caoimhe Bray. Carey has supported her well with six wickets at 22, while Hayley Silver-Holmes is yet to replicate last season’s nine-wicket breakthrough campaign.
Hobart’s challenge remains steep. They have already suffered two final-ball defeats, and their chasing record, once a defining strength after winning six of eight matches batting second in WBBL 11, has faded. They fell well short chasing 192 against the Melbourne Stars and were dismissed for 109 while pursuing 196 against the Sydney Sixers.
Yet Coleman believes the margins, rather than the effort, have been the problem. “There’s been a few heartbreakers, but I can’t fault the effort from the girls,” she said. “There would be a lot of teams in the comp that would not get as close as we have in a few of the games that we’ve been in.”
With only five wins historically required to reach the top four, the Hurricanes retain a mathematical route back into contention. But their immediate priority is unequivocal: beat Georgia Redmayne’s Brisbane Heat at Bellerive Oval on Saturday. Another defeat could force Hobart to shift from title defence to future planning, a prospect Coleman is determined to postpone for as long as possible.
(Quotes sourced from cricket.com.au)
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