Patterson suffers nasty injury; Strikers middle order stars in victory

Adelaide Strikers 171 (Patterson 44, Wellington 40, Prendergast 39) beat Sydney Sixers 160 for 9 (Bryce 62, Perry 54, Mushangwe 3-27) by 11 runs

Bridget Patterson was involved in a nasty incident while wicketkeeping during Adelaide Strikers’ victory over Sydney Sixers at North Sydney Oval where Amanda-Jade Wellington produce a key all-round display.

In the fourth over of Sixers’ chase Patterson took a ball in the face from a 119kph delivery by Darcie Brown which pitched in front of her and kicked up, striking her near the right eye. She stayed on the ground with a physio and doctor quickly onto the field and after a few minutes Patterson was able to walk off. She remained at the ground for remainder of the game and will be further assessed.

“It was a nasty injury,” Strikers coach Luke Williams said after the match. “Obviously we were all worried about her, but it looks like she’s escaped major injury. It certainly was nasty at the time with the cut.”

Patterson had earlier played a key role with the bat as Strikers’ middle-order produced a powerful counterattack to enable the visitors to claim the first win of their title defence.

In reply, Ellyse Perry dominated the early stages of the chase with a 26-ball fifty then Sarah Bryce impressed again with 62 off 44 balls but when she fell to Megan Schutt the innings faded swiftly in a collapse of 6 for 18. Legspinners Wellington and Anesu Mushangwe were superb in the closing overs with the former comfortably defending 14 off the last.

Patterson, Wellington and Orla Prendergast combined to make 123 off balls between them off 92 balls with 32 runs coming off the two power surge overs. Wellington, inparticular, cut loose inside the restrictions with two sixes and three fours off Ash Gardner and Lauren Cheatle to finish with 40 off 16.

Those contributions enabled Strikers to recover from 51 for 4 in the seventh over after Cheatle had made early inroads before Perry held onto a stinging return catch – with a juggle – to claim Laura Wolvaardt.

Perry and Bryce added 80 in 50 balls for the second wicket with Perry lacing 11 boundaries although she was dropped at long on 17. The impressive, and quick, Brown removed Perry when she top-edged a short ball to fine leg and Sixers suffered another huge blow when Gardner fell for a five-ball duck.

But Bryce and 19-year-old Elsa Hunter, on her WBBL debut, put on 53 off 35 balls to bring the target in sight aided by some poor catching from Strikers but they couldn’t finish the job for a Sixers side stretched to the limits by injury.

Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo