The three-peat hopes of the Adelaide Strikers are in tatters after a pair of West Indian stars went on a batting rampage for the Melbourne Renegades and reeled in a monster score to put the WBBL finals firmly in their sights.
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Despite posting their biggest score of the tournament so far, with Strikers captain Tahlia McGrath smashing 49 off just 24 balls, the home team’s total of 8-185 wasn’t enough to win at Karen Rolton Oval as Hayley Matthews blasted an unbeaten 85 to power the Renegades to victory.
After snaring 2-28 with the ball, Mathews and opening partner Courtney Webb smashed out 87 through the opening 10 overs of the run chase before Webb was forced to retire hurt with a back issue.
Matthews went on with the job, posting her highest ever WBBL score and countrywoman Deandra Dottin was even more imposing, smashing seven fours and a six in her 18-ball innings of 46, the West Indians combining for 85 runs in just six overs to continue the horror campaign for the defending champions.
The pair helped reel in the imposing total in the 18th over, just one wicket down, finishing on 1-186. It was the highest successful run chase in WBBL history, completed with 17 balls to spare.
Mathews the star as Renegades triumph | 02:45
The win was the Melbourne outfit’s fourth through seven games leaving the Renegades in fourth place on the table, having played one more game, but well poised to push for a place in the finals with the tournament on the other side of the halfway mark.
But for the Strikers it was a fifth loss in six games, and fourth in a row, and the two-time defending champs are stuck on the bottom of the ladder with a bowling unit unable to deliver as they have in previous tournaments.
Australian stars Megan Schutt and Darcie Brown failed to get early breakthroughs while perennial wicket-taker Amanda Jade-Wellington continued her struggles going wicketless and conceding
GET ON RED
The Renegades have finished last and second last on the WBBL table in the past two seasons, winning just two of 14 matches last season as the Strikers romped to back-to-back titles.
But in two clashes this season the red team have come out on top in both, and four wins from seven games is a long way in front of the six wins from 28 matches in 2022 and 2023.
Finals now beckon in the shortened 10-game season, with just three more games, including two in Melbourne, to come.
McGRATH OR BUST
Adelaide skipper McGrath has proved to be a lone-hand with the bat for the Strikers and took her run-haul to 194 for the tournament, a haul which includes two half centuries and she has topscored for her team in three of the six matches.
But the arrival of Indian star Smriti Mandhana could prove handy after she reeled off 40 runs in just her second innings for the Strikers having only linked up with the team last week, but it could be took little too late.
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