An amazing all-round performance from Ellyse Perry helped Sydney Sixers to start the season with a bang winning by 49 runs against Sydney Thunder at North Sydney Oval on Friday.
As WBBL started with a Sydney Derby, on winning the toss, Elyse Perry opted to bat on a pitch that is tailored made for batting. Dane Vane Niekerk failed to be Match fit, whereas Nida Dar made her WBBL debut.
Opening the innings for Sixers, the duo of Perry and Healy were off to a flyer. It started with Perry hitting Ismail for four on the very first ball of the match through extra cover. Very soon Healy started the fireworks hitting Bates to a couple of fours in the very next over. The partnership continued for 83 more runs as both shared almost equal runs in the partnership. Nida Dar on debut was welcomed by a four by Elyse Perry on her first ball.
The Partnership came to an end at 83, all credits to Nida Dar who picked up the wicket of Healy, this was her first wicket of the WBBL. Healy was dismissed on 42 in just 32 balls ( 5 fours and 2 sixes ).
Once with the dismissal of Healy came in another star player Ash Gardener. Even she started with a bang as she scored a Hattrick of boundaries in the bowling of Darlington. The Skipper Perry took the responsibility of building the innings as she scored her first 50 of the season in just 38 balls.
Both had a partnership of 50 before Gardener got out trying to hit one out of the park, she was dismissed on 28 by Dar. Elyse Perry continued to capitalize and ended up her inning at 81 runs. She was runout in a mixup with Burns and was short of another century by just 19 runs. All the coming batters especially Burns and Kapp played a decent cameo which helped Sixers to set a huge target of 193 runs. With the ball, it was Dar who picked a couple of wickets but she was expensive giving 44 runs in 4 overs.
Chasing a mammoth total of 193, Thunders had a complete contrast opening partnership compared to sixers. Opener Stalenberg was dismissed by Perry for just 2 runs. The veteran Priest too failed as even she dismissed for just 2 runs again by Perry. Like her batting, Perry was bang on with bowl too.
The senior pro-Kapp was hitting a good line and length and she dismissed the skipper of Thunder, Rachael Haynes was out at 11 in 16 balls. Following her entered the 16 years Litchfield who started well, she was guided by Veteran Blackwell, both had a partnership of 71 runs which was equally dominated. Litchfield after scoring a decent 25 on debut was trapped lbw by another 16-year-old Holmes.
Once she got out, it was Blackwell who tried to hit some good shots and she bought her half-century in just 34 balls.
As no other batters gave good support, Thunders ended up the inning at 143 for 9 in 20 overs who were short by 49 runs.
With the bowling for Sixers, it was the Senior pro-Sarah Aley picked up 3 wickets who cleaned up the tail. In the beginning, it was Perry who was excellent with the ball.
On the whole, it was again a brilliant performance from Sixers and it was nice to see the captain Perry setting a perfect example to her players. Sydney Sixers, as usual, started the season with a bang and they will be facing Brisbane tomorrow in a revenge match of last year’s final, whereas Thunders will try to come out of the loss and win their next match.
Brief Scores: Sydney Sixers: 192 for 6 ( Perry 81, Healy 42 & Dar 2 for 44) defeated Sydney Thunder ( Blackwell 56, Litchfield 25 & Aley 3 for 28) by 49 runs.