The Sydney Sixers will be happy to put the North Sydney Oval in their rear-vision mirror, for the next week at least, after a losing a third consecutive home game to open the WBBL season this time to the all-conquering Brisbane Heat.
For the third time in a row in clashes between the two teams the match went down to the wire, but in a sign of the tide turning against the home team, it was the Heat who came out on top for that first time in that trifecta of games.
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A bowling fightback from the Sixers threatened to end the Heat’s unbeaten start to the season but in the end their paltry total of 8-146, which included an early collapse of 3-1 proved too low to stop the Brisbane run machine who reeled in the total with six balls to spare.
In the opening two matches of their campaign the Heat had pounded a mammoth 416 runs and even though chief destroyer Grace Harris could manage just 39, off 19 balls with three sixes, Georgia Voll (39) steadied things for the visitors before captain Jess Jonassen (27) blasted some late boundaries to deliver the victory.
A slew of dropped catches from the Sixers compounded their problems with a return for captain Alyssa Healy, who watched on nervously from the stands with her hand heavily bandaged after her weekend encounter with her two dogs and their teeth, yet to be confirmed.
The Heat have taken control on the top of the WBBL table with three straight wins, while the Sixers, beaten finalists last season, now have three matches on the road, in Melbourne and Perth to try and open their account.
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”It was a tight one,” Voll, who was player of the match after also taking 1-17 to go with her innings, said.
“It was really good for everyone to chip in the back-end and get us over the line.”
MERRY PERRY
After missing the opening match of the WBBL for a suspension lingering from last season superstar Ellyse Perry has put her foot down and once again put her all new power game on show with a team-high 49 off just 30 balls smashing eight fours and a six.
Four of those fours came off a single over from the WBBL’s golden bat whose powers didn’t extend to gentle off break.
Perry also blasted 31 off just 16 balls in her opening effort for the season, albeit a losing cause, having made a conscious effort to develop the power hitting game she needed to maintain her place n the national side as her bowling capacity starts to wane.
PROBLEMS AT THE TOP
The absence of Healy from the Sixers top-order has been magnified by three straight failures from veteran Kiwi star Suzie Bates.
In three innings she has made just 14 runs, and her dismissals on Tuesday night sparked a collapse of 3-1, the Sixers going from 0-31 after Perry’s onslaught to 3-32 as Courtney Grace Sippel snared two wickets in three balls in her opening over.
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